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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



f iapapjg. 



BY 

GEORGE CANNING HILL. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1865. 






< 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



'3 & 113 



1 




X 



(b ^ 



PREFACE. 



The author has designed the present series of Biogra- 
phies more particularly for the young. And, in pursuing 
his original plan along to its termination, he has set 
before himself the following objects, to which he invites 
the reader's attention : 

To furnish from the pages of the world's history a few 
examples of true manhood, lofty purpose, and persevermg 
effort, such as may be safely held up either for the admi- 
ration or emulation of the youth of the present day ; 

To clear away, in his treatment of these subjects, what- 
ever mistiness and mustiness may have accumulated with 
time about them, presenting to the mental vision fresh 
and living pictures, that shall seem to be clothed with 
naturalness, and energy, and vitality; 

To offer no less instruction to the minds, than pleasure 
to the imaginations of the many for whom he has taken it 
in hand to write ; 

And, more especially, perhaps, to familiarize the youth 
I* 



VI PREFACE. 

of our day with those striking and manly characters, that 
have long ago made their mark, deep and lasting, on the 
history and fortunes of the American Continent. 

The deeds of these men, it is true, are to be found 
abundantly recorded in Histories; but they lie so scat- 
tered along their ten thousand pages, and are so inter- 
mixed with the voluminous records of other matters, as to 
be practically out of the reach of the younger portion of 
readers, and so of the very ones for whom this series has 
been undertaken. These want only pictures of actual 
life ; and, if the author shall, in any due degree, succeed 
even in sketching interesting outlines^ he will feel that he 
is answering the very purpose that has long lain unper- 
formed within his heart. 



co:n'texts. 



CHAPTER I. 

FAOS 
TOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP, 7 

CHAPTER II. 

AT HIS TRADE, 34 

CHAPTER III. 

TO ENGLAND AND BACK, 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

IN BUSINESS, 81 

CHAPTER V. 

GETTING ALONG, 106 

CHAPTER VI. 

BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN, *, . . 129 

CHAPTER VII. 

GEORGE WHITFIELD — SOLDIERING — A PHILOSOPHER, . . . 152 
1* (Y) 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER YIIl. 

PAGB 
GETTING FAME, 173 

CHAPTER IX. 

AS A MILITARY MAN, 199 

CHAPTER X. 

FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE, 224 

CHAPTER XI. 

FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES, 249 

CHAPTER XII. 

STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION, 271 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MINISTER TO FRANCE, 296 

CHAPTER XIV. 

CLOSE OF HIS CAREER, 317 



BENJAMIN PRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 

TT is uncommon for the steps of so practical 
a person as Dr. Franklin to be turned into 
such romantic paths. He could have dreamed 
of nothing more than a life of hard and steady 
labor; yet the persevering pursuit of that very 
labor made him the counsellor of Generals and 
Congresses, the representxitive of his country at 
foreign Courts, and worthy to be asked to sit down 
with kings. 

He was a genuine product of American soil. 
His mother-wit served him better than learning, 
and his ready knowledge of human nature was an 
invaluable resource. He was shrewd and saga- 
cious ; prudent, yet bold ; frugal, yet generous ; 
a student of philosophy, but a man of the world. 

(7) 



8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

He took hold of whatever he did, that he might 
work out some tangible result. Nothing came to 
him by luck, but everything through labor. His 
instinctive modesty was only paralleled by his ad- 
mirable self-possession. 'No man was ever more wil- 
ling to keep himself out of sight, if by that means 
the cause could be helped on. He sought only stable 
things ; and reputation followed as a matter of 
course. His clearness and coolness of judgment 
made him widely sought after as an adviser ; and, 
if he offered a doubt, it was called one of '' Frank- 
lin's portents," which led men to pause and reflect 
a little longer. 

This is by no means a summary of his varied 
character, but a mere hint of the sterling ore 
which lay beneath. 

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, but 
settled in business, at last, in Philadelphia, where 
he established his home. His father came over 
from England with his first wife, in 1685, bringing 
three children ; four more were born to them in 
Boston, when his wife died, and he married again. 
The second wife bore him ten children, of which 
number Benjamin was the eighth, two girls being 
his juniors. The whole brood, therefore, counted 
seventeen : Franklin says, in his autobiography, 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 9 

that he remembered to have seen thirteen sitting 
arauncl the table at one time. 

His father's name was Josiah ; he married Abiah 
Folger, a daughter of one of the early settlers of 
'New England, whom old Cotton Mather styled "a 
godly and learned Englishman." His father's 
trade, after coming to l^ew England, was that of 
a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler: he had been a 
dyer in the old country, but found that trade too 
poor an one to permit him to support his family. 
He was an excellent man, of a firm and healthy 
texture of character, fond of mechanical opera- 
tions, skilled in drawing, and much given to music. 
After the day's work was over, he used to play on 
his violin, accompanying it with his voice. He 
was possessed of a sound judgment, and would 
have been called into public affairs had not his 
large family kept him in straitened circumstances 
and held him all the time close to his trade. His 
word, however, had weight with the leading men 
of his church, and many persons came to consult 
him about their private matters. They often 
chose him to decide in their differences, willing 
to abide his just decision. Franklin says that, at 
the family table, he liked to have some sensible 
friend, or neighbor, call in to converse with him, 



10 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and invariably started some topic for talk, with a 
view to improve the minds of the children. "By 
this means" — he adds — "he turned our attention 
to what was good, just, and prudent, in the con- 
duct of life ; and little or no notice was ever taken 
of what related to the victuals on the table, whether 
it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of 
good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to this 
or that other thing of the kind: so that I was 
brought up in such a perfect inattention to those 
matters, as to be* quite indifferent what kind of 
food v/as set before me." 

Franklin's father lived to be eighty-nine years 
of age, and his mother to be eighty-five : he says 
he never knew either of them to have any sick- 
ness but that of which they died. They lie buried 
in Boston, where he erected over them a marble 
tablet, on which is recorded the story of their 
lives and virtues. The inscription on this stone 
is curious enough to be copied into even the 
briefest life of the dutiful and illustrious son. 
This is it :— 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 11 

JosiAH Franklin 

and 

Abiah his wife, 

Lie here interred. 

They lived lovingly together in wredlock 

Fifty-five years ; 

And without an eftate, or any gainful employment, 

By conftant labor, and honest induftry, 

(With God's blessing,) 

Maintained a large family comfortably. 

And brought up thirteen children, and seven grandchildren 

Reputably. 

From this inftance, reader. 

Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 

And distrust not Providence, 

He was a pious and prudent man, 

She a discreet and virtuous woman. 

Their youngest son. 

In filial regard to their memory. 

Places this ftone. 

J. F. born 1655; died 1744, ^t. 89. 

A. F. born 1667; died 1752, ^t. 85. 

When young Benjamin was eight years old, he 
was sent to the grammar school, his father mean- 
ing to devote him to the service of the church. 
The lad was a ready learner, and made rapid pro- 
gress in his classes, rising from one to another. 
He was kept here but about a year, however, his 
father's circumstances not allowing him to think 



12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of sending him to college, and was next put to a 
Mr. George Brownwell, who kept a famous school 
for writing and arithmetic. "With this teacher he 
soon learned to write a good hand ; hut he con- 
fesses that he made a failure in his arithmetic ! 
He was hut ten years old, when his father took 
him out of school to help him in his business of 
tallow-chandler and soap-boiler; and the future 
philosopher and statesman was, so early in life as 
that, cutting wicks for candles, filling moulds with 
melted tallow, waiting on the shop, and running 
of errands. He declares that he did not like the 
trade, and wanted to go to sea; but his father 
would permit no such thing. Living where the 
tides came and went twice each day, he spent 
more or less time about the water, and very soon 
learned to swim well, and to manage boats ; and 
when the least trouble threatened the young crew 
on the water, Franklin was set up as captain and 
controller. 

He was generally a leader among his comrades, 
and admits that he sometimes led them into 
"scrapes;" he mentions one such, to show what 
spirit he was made of. " There was a salt marsh," 
he says, " which bounded part of the mill-pond, 
on the edge of which, at high water, we used to 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 13 

stand to fish for minnows. By mucli trampling we 
had made it a mere qnagmire. My proposal was to 
build a wharf there for iis to stand upon, and I 
showed my comrades a large heap of stones which 
were intended for a new house near the marsh, 
and which would very well suit our purpose. Ac- 
cordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were 
gone home, I assembled a number of my playfel- 
lows, and we worked diligently, like so many em- 
mets, sometimes two or three to a stone, till w^e 
brought them all to make a little wharf. The next 
morning, the workmen w^ere surprised at missing' 
the stones, which had formed our wharf. Inquirv 
was made after the authors of this transfer ; we 
were discovered, complained of, and corrected ly 
our fathers; and, though I demonstrated the utility 
of our work, mine convinced me that that which 
was not honest, could not be truly usefuV 

Franklin continued with his father in the soap 
boiler's business for two years, arriving at his 
twelfth year. He disliked the trade worse than 
ever ; and his father began to fear lest the lad 
would indeed run away to sea, if his own wishes 
in the matter of a calling were not more regarded. 
80 he took his son to walk with him all about 

the town, among the joiners,, the bricklayers, the 

2 



14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

turners, the braziers, and the men of other trades 
and occupations, while at their work, all the time 
watching to see which of them all the lad might 
appear to prefer, and intending to let him choose 
any one of them, if that would only break his 
tendency for the sea. One happy result came of 
these repeated visits, if no other : when the boy 
became a man, he knew so much of .the several 
trades, and how workmen handled their tools, that 
he was always ready to perform trifling jobs in 
the house, and could construct machines for his 
philosophical experiments just when his intention 
was fresh and warm in his mind. 

His father at last designed him for the cutler's 
trade, and placed him for a few days, as a trial, 
with his brother Samuel, who had been bred to 
the trade in London, and had recently set up in 
business in Boston ; but his cousin demanded so 
large a fee for his apprenticeship, that his father 
was displeased with it, and the lad was taken 
home again. A single circumstance at this point 
came in to decide the whole matter; owing to 
this alone, Benjamin Franklin was put in the way 
of becoming widely useful to his own generation, 
and illustrious before the world. He had a passion 
for reading. That was the golden key which un- 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 15 

locked his whole future. All the money he could 
earn he spent in buying books. He took especial 
delight in voyages. The first books he bought 
were Bunyan's works, in small volumes. These 
he afterwards sold, to get the money to buy R. 
Burton's "Historical Collections," in all, forty 
little volumes. He read the greater part of his 
father's library, which was made up of volumes 
on theology, and was of a dry, argumentative 
character. He said he had often regretted that 
at that particular time more proper books had not 
been thrown in his way, especially as he was not 
to study afterward for the ministry. He found 
Plutarch's Lives among his father's books, and 
devoured them ; many a promising lad has done 
it before and since, and Franklin confessed the 
great benefit he received from the book. He 
mentions, likewise, a book written by De Foe, 
styled an "Essay on Projects," and one, in par- 
ticular, written by the famous Cotton Mather, 
called " An Essay to do Good." Much and last- 
ing good it did in his case, certainly. He ad- 
mitted that it gave him "a turn of thinking," 
and had an influence on some of the future events 
of his life. 

Seeing how he liked books and reading, his 



16 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

father resolved to make liim a printer. This was 
the long and decisive step in his career. One son, 
James, was ah-eady of that trade, and had returned 
from England not a long time before, with press 
and other implements, to set up business in Bos- 
ton. Benjamin admits that he liked the idea of 
that trade much better than his father's, although 
he could not yet wholly give up the sea. To 
make it secure as soon as possible, his father 
made haste to bind him to service to the elder 
brother. Benjamin resisted the plan for some 
time, but was at length persuaded, and put his 
own name to the legal indenture, being but 
twelve years old at the time of doing it. This 
instrument held him to serve his brother James, 
at the printer's trade, until he should become 
twenty-one years old; but, according to custom, 
he was to have journeyman's wages the last year. 
He took hold in earnest, and made such pro- 
o-ress at his new trade that he was soon of real 
value to his brother's business. In his new situa- 
tion he was thrown in the way of procuring better 
books, and more of them. A friendship con- 
tracted with the booksellers' apprentices of the 
town enabled him, from time to time, to borrow 
a small volume, which he always returned soon, 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 17 

and clean. Other borrowers might take a useful 
hint from their great exemplar, and save a great 
deal of hard feeling. He used to sit up in his 
chamber, very often for the greater part of the 
night, reading,^ so as to return in the morning the 
book he had borrowed the evening before, lest it 
should be missed from the bookseller's shop. 
There was a merchant in Boston then, Matthew 
Adams by name, who was in the habit of calling 
in at the printing office of James Franklin ; he 
had a good store of books, and, seeing how fond 
the printer lad was of reading, generously invited 
him to come and see his library, offering to lend 
him whatever books he wanted to read. 

He tried his hand at writing poetry about this 
time, and his brother rather encouraged him to 
continue with it ; he composed a couple of bal- 
lads, one of them called '' The Light House Tra- 
gedy," and the other a sailor's song, on the cap- 
ture of one Teach, a pirate of the day, who was 
nicknamed "Blackbeard." Franklin himself af- 
terward admitted that they were "wretched stuftV 
When they were printed, his brother sent him 
around town to peddle them. Of the former he 
sold a very large number, and he was made some^ 
what vain in consequence; but his father, who 

2* 



18 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

had good hard sense, criticised his ballads without 
mercy, and wound up with telling him that 
"versemakers were generally beggars." This ut- 
terly discouraged the youth's ambition in that 
direction. He says he " escaped being a poet, 
and probably a very bad one." 

All this, however, had no effect to dissuade 
him from his resolution to acquire skill in express- 
ing his thoughts in good 'prose. There was a lad 
in town named John Collins, w^ho was a close 
friend of young Franklin, Both loved to argue, 
and were fond of disputing, although Franklin 
admitted when he grew wiser that it was a bad 
habit in a man, and very apt to spoil conversation, 
to sour friendship, and to disgust the company ; 
he afterward observed that few persons were ad- 
dicted to it beside lawyers and collegians. Col- 
lins and himself became concerned in an argu- 
ment about the propriety of educating females, 
and their natural ability for study ; his friend 
professing to believe the other sex intellectually 
inferior to ours, and Franklin maintaining the 
contrary. Collins rather vanquished the future 
philosopher with the greater flow of his words, 
w^hile the latter still remained unconvinced by his 
reasons. To place the matter on its merits solely, 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 19 

after they separated, franklin put down his argu- 
ments on paper, in as clear phrases as he could 
command, and copied and sent them to his oppo- 
nent. Collins read and answered them, and Frank- 
lin replied. They had been disputing in this style 
to the number of three or four letters, when the 
lad's father chanced to come across his papers, and 
read them. Soon afterward, he sat down and 
talked with his son about what he had discovered ; 
he did not offer to argue the question involved, 
either one way or another, but he touched upon 
his son's style of writing, observing that, although 
he clearly had the advantage of his opponent in 
punctuation and spelling, he fell far short of him 
in style of expression, in clearness, and in his 
method of discussion. The criticism came in 
good time ; it set the youth to thinking on the 
faults of his composition, and aroused his resolu- 
tion to make himself a clear and eifective writer. 
He fell in with an odd volume of the British 
" Spectator," then, — a hajDpy coincidence indeed. 
It w^as the first time he had ever seen any part of 
those delightful essays. He bought the volume, 
and read it again and again with much delight. 
He liked its easy style of writing so well, that he 
resolved to try and imitate it. To this end, he 



20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

began with a single number^ or essay, in the vol- 
ume ; mastering the thoughts or sentiments of each 
sentence, and noting them clown on paper, he laid 
them by for a few days, and then put them in the 
best language of his own which he could com- 
mand, and compared what he had done with what 
the writers of the "Spectator" had done. In this 
way, he was really writing up to the "Spectator" 
standard, the famous authors of that collection of 
essays furnishing him with criticisms, hints, and 
models, as he went along. In no other way coukl 
he so readily detect his own faults, or hope to 
correct them. This plan he pursued with indus- 
tr}^ for some time, and had the satisfaction of 
seeing his own improvement. To gain a wider 
command of words, he turned some of the "Spec- 
tator's" tales into verse; and afterwards, when he 
had quite forgotten the "Spectator's" prose, 
turned them back again into prose of his own. 

In order to exercise his mind in the art of 
methodizing and arranging his subjects as they 
came up for treatment, he would mix up the hints 
he had jotted down on paper, and some time after- 
ward endeavor to arrange them for himself, so as 
to present them in the most obvious order and 
with the greatest force. He labored hard at his 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 21 

self-imposed tasks in English composition, but he 
was resolved to become " a tolerable English 
writer," and persevered until he met with success. 
He was helping himself to an education ; many a 
youth of his years refuses to do anything for his 
own improvement, when he has everybody to help 
him. The time he devoted to this kind of self- 
instruction, as well as to his reading, was either 
at night or before going to work in the morning ; 
on Sundays, too, he went quietly to the printing 
office, preferring not to attend public worship, and 
there gave the day to his reading and writing 
exercises. His father would have expected him 
to attend church, if he had been living at home ; 
but being apprenticed to his brother, he had in a 
measure passed beyond the reach of parental 
restraints. He acknowledges that he considered 
going to church to be a duty, but that he could 
not afford time to practice it. 

Time passed, the apprentice closely pursuing 
his studies and his work. When he was sixteen, 
he fell in with a book that recommended a vege- 
table diet, and determined to make an experiment 
of that style of living. His brother was not a 
married man, and was therefore compelled to 
board out his apprentices. It made trouble in 



22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the family arrangements for one apprentice to 
decline eating meat, and Franklin read his vege- 
tarian work more carefully, to learn how to cook 
the various dishes he wanted for himself; in a 
short time he qualified himself to make hasty 
puddings and other sorts of puddings, to hoil rice 
and potatoes, and to cook many other simple 
dishes. Then he went to his brother and made 
the following proposal, — if the latter would give 
him each week only half the amount he paid for 
his board, he would undertake to board himself! 
This from a boy of sixteen ! His brother readily 
accepted a proposal like that; and even out of 
that half allowance, Franklin saved still a half, 
with which he purchased books. He also saved 
the time he otherwise would have taken in going 
from the office to his meals, and returning. 
While his brother and the rest of the apprentices 
were gone, he ate his frugal meal, often consist- 
ing of no more than a biscuit, or a slice of bread, 
or a tart, and a glass of water, and then applied 
himself to study until their return. He felt his 
head to be clearer and his apprehension much 
quicker, from practising this temperance. In 
these odd scraps of time, snatched from hh 
meals, he resolutely studied Arithmetic, of which 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 23 

he felt that lie was wretchedly ignorant, and pro- 
ceeded some way into ]N"avigation. He likewise 
read at this time so deep a book as " Locke on 
Human Understanding," and another entitled 
*'The Art of Thinking." English Grammar he 
took up, too ; and an article on Logic, at the end 
of the book out of which he studied, led him to 
an acquaintance with the writings of Socrates, 
and especially with the mode adopted by that 
philosopher of arguing topics, which was by ask- 
ing questions like an humble inquirer. In conse- 
quence of this acquaintance with the Greek sage, 
he dropped his former style of arguing with 
positive denial and plump dogmatism, and took 
to the "Socratic Method," which he followed 
ever after, and found it of the widest use and 
efficacy. Instead of arousing those with whom 
he did not agree to open antagonism, he put 
them questions which would draw them out in 
definitions and concessions, — they not seeing 
whither his questions tended, — and then obtained 
his victory by their own help. He thought some- 
times that neither his cause nor himself was 
fairly entitled to such victories. 

His improvement now w^as rapid and percept- 
ible. He could not have failed to make progress, 



24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

witli this thorough self-searching. About the 
year 1720, his brother published a newspaper, 
the second that had been printed in America. 
It was called the "IlTew England Courant." His 
friends tried to dissuade him from such a project, 
thinking that one newspaper was enough for the 
country ; but he persevered, and young Benjamin 
was employed as a carrier to the subscribers. 
He would first work at the t}^es, then at the 
press, and finally carry around the paper. See- 
ing that some persons whom he knew began to 
contribute short articles to the "Courant," the 
ambitious carrier conceived the bold idea of 
writing for its columns too. He was afraid his 
brother James would refuse to admit any article 
which he knew to be his, so he artfully disguised 
his hand, wrote his communication, and placed it 
under the door over night. In the morning it 
was picked up, and submitted to those who Avere 
in the habit of dropping in and passing judgment 
on the articles written. Franklin was greatly 
pleased to listen to their favorable criticisms, and 
especially to hear them guess what respectable 
man of the town might be the author! This 
unexpected success so pleased him that he re- 
solved to begin and write for the press regularly, 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 25 

taking all the pains possible with his productions. 
lie kept his secret well until his " fund of sense," 
as he styled it, was exhausted, and then he made 
himself known to his friends as the real author 
about whom they had indulged so many sur- 
mises. 

His brother James, however, did not seem to 
like it so well, and perhaps thought Ben. would 
be made vain by the good opinions of others; and 
it is recorded that with this circumstance the 
trouble between the two brothers began. James 
felt that he was the inaster of Benjamin, because 
the latter had been bound out to him after legal 
forms ; while Benjamin thought that, even if he 
were apprenticed to his brother, the latter should 
have given him kinder treatment, because he was 
his brother. "When they fell into disputes, — ■ 
which came to be pretty often, — their troubles 
were carried before their father, to whom each 
pleaded his own case ; and Benjamin having the 
decision made in his favor pretty often, this fact 
only served to widen instead of to heal the 
breach between them. Ben. began to feel the 
weight of the yoke of his apprenticeship, and to 
wish it lifted from his neck altogether. At any 
rate, the tyrannical treatment from which he then 



26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

suffered, excited his hatred of tyranny from that 
time forward through his whole career. 

About this time, or very soon after, an article 
in the Franklin newspaper gave great offence to 
the Massachusetts Assembly. James was arrested 
by warrant of the Speaker of the House, publicly 
censured by him, and then thrown into prison for 
a month, because he would not make known the 
writer of the offensive article. 

Benjamin was likewise arrested and brought be- 
fore the Governor's Council ; he was merely ad- 
monished by them, probably not being thought 
responsible for the fault, inasmuch as he was but 
an apprentice. While his brother James lay in 
prison, of course he had the management of the 
paper ; he confesses that he " made bold to give 
our rulers some rubs in it," which his brother was 
not at all displeased with, but which led to his 
being considered by others as " a youth that had 
a turn for libelling and satire." "When his brother 
w^as at length discharged, it w^as ordered by the 
assembly that ''James FrmiMin should no longer 
print the newspaper called ' The Netv England 
CouranV " It was talked over among the friends 
of the paper what was best to do ; some were for 
changing its name, so that ^' James Franklin" 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 27 

could go on with its management; but as that 
course would be attended wdth some inconveni- 
ences, it was finally resolved to let the paper be 
continued under its old name, w^ith Benjamin 
Franklin as its manas^er and controller. In order 
to make the whole transaction legal and fair, 
James returned to Benjamin his indenture, with 
a full discharge written on the back of it, w^hich 
could be exhibited in case of threatened trouble. 
But Benjamin was nevertheless to sign new papers, 
binding himself to his brother for the remainder 
of his time ; all these w^ere to be kept private. 
And in this way the "^ew England Courant" 
was printed by Benjamin Franklin for several 
months ; thus was the youth launched on the open 
sea where he was to gain a livelihood and a name. 
Pretty soon a fresh quarrel broke out between 
the brothers. Benjamin declared he would leave, 
and produced his elder brother's discharge, written 
on the back of the original indenture, as clear 
proof of his right to do so. He dared his brother 
to show the private agreement to anybody, well 
knowing its worthlessness. Franklin confessed 
that this was clearly wrong, as taking an unfair 
advantage ; but he said he was provoked to it by 
the blows which his brother dealt out on him in 



28 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

one of his many fits of passion. James Franklin, 
however, was not at other times an ill-natured 
man, Benjamin says; "perhaps," added he, very 
candidly, " I was too saucy and provoking." 

They separated at once, after that ; but James 
took care to go around to the other printing offices 
in town, and influence the masters not to give 
Benjamin work; and it was this single circum- 
stance that drove him so far from his friends as 
'New York, at first, and afterward to Philadelphia. 
He did not feel as bad about turning his back on 
Boston either, as he otherwise might, had he not 
come under the displeasure of the Government by 
the course of his newspaper ; and he said he feared, 
too, that if he stayed there longer, he would " soon 
bring himself into scrapes." He was looked upon 
by many persons already as " an infidel and an 
atheist," because of his disputes on religious 
nuxtters. 

His father, however, took sides now with his 
elder brother, and would have kept him at home 
in Boston until his indenture regularly expired. 
This led the youth to take the resolution to run 
away. His friend Collins, w^ith whom he used to 
debate questions on paper, aided him in his pur- 
pose. Collins made an agreement for him with the 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 29 

captain of a sloop, bound for New York, to take 
him on board, saying that he was a young man of 
his acquaintance wbo had got into trouble with 
a girl of bad reputation, and who her parents 
insisted should marry her; in consequence of 
which, he could neither make his appearance in 
public, nor come down to his vessel except pri- 
vately. To raise the money needed to defray his 
passage, Franklin sold some of his books, and was 
taken on board without the knowledge of smy 
one. With a favorable wind he was on the water 
but three days, at the end of which time he found 
himself in the streets of New York, three hundred* 
miles from home, but seventeen years of age, 
knowing no one in the whole place, bearing no 
letter of recommendation to any person, and with 
as little money as possible in his pocket. This 
was in October, in the year 1723. 

Benjamin Franklin now had his own way to 
make. He chanced to be one of the few runaway 
lads who '^came to something" afterwards. 

He was by this time pretty well cured of his 
propensity for the sea, and began to look around 
for work to do. There was a Mr. William Brad- 
ford in town, a printer, who had come from Phila- 
delphia not long before in consequence of a 
3* 



80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN". 

quarrel with the Pennsylvania Governor, and to 
him young Franklin forthwith presented himself. 
The kind stranger received him in a friendly 
manner, told him he could give him nothing to 
do there, but suggested that he might find a place 
at Philadelphia with his son, whose best hand had 
recently died. Franklin was grateful enough for 
the hint, and immediately set about acting on it. 
He went on board a boat at once for Amboy, 
leaving directions for his chest to come round by 
sea after him. His boating experience was un- 
pleasant, a squall overtook them, tore in pieces 
their wretched sails, and drove them on Long 
Island. A drunken Dutchman fell overboard, 
whom Franklin pulled out of the water by the 
hair of his head. The fellow drew a book out of 
his pocket, and asked the lad to dry it for him ; 
Franklin was delighted to find it was his dear old 
friend, John Bunyan, " in Dutch, finely printed on 
good paper, copper cuts, and a dress better than 
he had ever seen it wear in its own language." A 
printer's eye for everything. The little craft lay 
at anchor oiF the Island all that day and the follow- 
ing night, the sea rolling so that it was impossible 
to get help from the shore. They all crowded in 
under the hatches that night, wet and hungry and 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 31 

feverish ; the next day, however, the wind shifted, 
and by night they reached Amboy. They had 
been thirty hours on the water, without anything 
to eat, and with no drink but a bottle of rum. 

Franklin had taken cold and felt fever upon 
him. He had somewhere read of copious draughts 
of water being ef&cient to break up a fever, and 
resolved to try the remedy. During the night he 
sweat profusely, and felt so much better in the 
morning as to be able to set out on foot, after 
crossing by the ferry, for Burlington, a distance 
of fifty miles ; there he expected to find convey- 
ance by water to Philadelphia. The homeless boy 
had hard luck of it. It began to rain, and kept 
raining all day long ; so that he was really soaked 
before he had gone many miles, and obliged, by 
noon, feeling extremely tired too, to call at a 
wayside tavern for lodgings, where he rested him- 
self for the night. He became now very home- 
sick, and many times wished he had never thought 
of leaving home. The people in the house asked 
him a good many close questions, and he began 
to fear lest he should be thought what he really 
was, — a runaway apprentice, and apprehended and 
sent back whence he came. But he pushed on the 
next morning, and walked that day to within ten 



32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

miles of Burlington, stopping for the niglit at a 
house kept by Dr. Brown, an infidel, who became 
much interested in talking on various subjects 
with him. 

IN'ext morning he started for Burlington. He 
arrived there to find the regular boats to Phila- 
delphia just gone. It was then Saturday, and no 
more were to leave until Tuesday. He went 
straight back to an old woman in Burlington of 
w^hom he had purchased gingerbread on his arri- 
val, and asked her frankly what was best to do. 
She offered to lodge him until the next regular 
boat left ; and on afterwards finding out that he 
was a printer by trade, she tried to induce him to 
stay there and pursue his craft. She was exceed- 
ingly kind to the youth, giving him some ox-cheek 
for his dinner, and maldng him as contented as 
she knew how. While he chanced to be strolling 
by the river side at evening, a boat drew near, 
having several passengers aboard. He was told 
she was bound for Philadelphia, and asked the 
boatmen to take him aboard. There was no wind, 
and they were obliged to tug at the oars all the 
way. They even pulled past the city, not know- 
ing they had reached it. A little past midnight 
some of the passengers raised the question whether 



YOUTH AND APPRENTICESHIP. 33 

they had not gone by ; the result of the dispute 
was, they put the boat toward the shore, worked 
into a creek, made fast to an old fence from which 
they took the rails to build a fire, and stayed tliere 
until the light of morning revealed the truth to 
their eyes. They were beyond Philadelphia, as 
some of them supposed. Immediately they got 
the boat out from the creek and pulled back for 
the town ; where they arrived between eight and 
nine o'clock. 

Franklin landed on Market street wharf on a 
Sunday morning, in his working clothes, dirty 
from the long voyage, his pockets stufied out 
with shirts and stockings, and himself a stranger 
to everybody, and knowing not where to go to 
seek a lodging. 



34 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER II, 



AT HIS TRADE. 



1]^ such plight he entered the city where he 
was to lay the foundation of his future fame, 
and live to enjoy its most satisfying rewards. 
He had one dollar in his pocket beside a shilling's 
worth of copper coins. The latter he gave to the 
bontmen for bringing him from Burlington ; they 
refused to take it, because he had rowed his way 
along ; but he persisted until they took what he 
offered. Walking along the street, he met a lad 
with bread, and asked where he got it ; being di- 
rected to a baker's, he at once entered the shop 
and called for some biscuit, thinking the bakers 
of Philadelphia made up their bread after the 
same patterns and styles with their bretliren of 
Boston. The baker kept no such article as biscuit. 
He then called for a three penny loaf, but the 
baker had nothing like that. Finally, bidding the 
man give him three cents' worth of such bread as 



AT HIS TRADE. 35 

he had, he received ^' three great puffy rolls," as 
he al\;erwards described them, and walked off. 
His pockets being filled with dirty clothes, as 
already mentioned, he put a roll under each arm, 
and ate the third as he strolled up the streets. In 
this style he walked up Market to Fourth street, 
and chanced to pass the house of a Mr. Read, 
whose daughter Sarah, whom he afterwards mar- 
ried, was standing in the door, amused with the 
awkward appearance of the youth. 

Reaching Fourth street, he turned and walked 
down Chestnut and part of "Walnut streets, still 
engaged with his "puffy" roll, and came around 
at last at the wharf whence he started. He went 
on board the boat he had come on, and got some 
water to wash his bread down ; and finding a 
woman, with her child, still on board, waiting to 
go on, he gave her the remaining two rolls, and 
felt as if he had done his duty. Once more he 
sallied forth up the street. Large numbers of 
persons were thronging the walks, and he fell in 
w^ith the current, willing to go wherever it might 
take him. He w^as borne into the Quaker Meet- 
ing-House, near the Market, where he sat down 
in the midst of the silent worshippers, and, hear- 
ing not a word spoken for a long time, finally fell 



36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

asleep. Xor did he awake until aroused hj a 
person wlio told him services were over, and the 
house was to be shut up. This Quaker meeting- 
house afforded him the first sleep he got in 
Philadelphia. It overpowered him, he was so 
worn down with excessive labor, fasting, and 
watchfulness, since he left ISTew York. 

On the way down to the river again, he fell in 
with a young Quaker whose face he liked, and 
ventured to ask him about a good tavern, where 
a stranger could get lodgings. "Here," said the 
Quaker, pointing to the sign of the Three 
Mariners' tavern, hard by, "is a house where 
they receive strangers, but it is not a reputable 
one ; if thee wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a 
better one." The Quaker showed him to the 
sign of the " Crooked Billet," in Water street. 
This, therefore, was Franklin's first hostelry in 
the City of Brotherly Love. He took his dinner 
there, and began to be afraid, from the questions 
put him, that his character would be suspected. 

After dinner, completely tired out, he asked to 
be shown to bed, and laid himself down on it 
without removing his clothes ; there he slept till 
six o'clock, when he was called to supper. Soon 
after supper, he went to bed again, and slept 



AT HIS TRADE. 37 

without waking until morning. He needed the 
copious rest he was taking. Dressing himself 
neatly, he went over to the printing office of 
Mr. William Bradford's son, to solicit work. 
Whom should he find there but the same Mr. 
Bradford he had met in N'ew York, — the old 
gentleman having come on horseback and arrived 
before him. He introduced young Franklin to 
his son, who invited him to take breakfast with 
him. The younger Bradford was not then in 
want of a hand in the office, but he told the 
youth of another printer, who had lately set up- 
business, and who would perhaps employ him. 
The name of the new printer was Keimer. At 
any rate, Mr. Bradford assured him that, if he 
did not get work there, he might lodge at his 
house, and he would give him a little work, now 
and then, which might help along until some- 
thing better offered. 

Mr. Bradford, senior, went at once with Frank- 
lin to Keimer's office, and introduced him thus : 
"Neighbor," said he, "I have brought to see you 
a young man of your business ; perhaps you may 
want such a one." Keimer put the youth a few 
questions, handed him a "composing stick," to 
see how he could work, and at once promised to 



88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

give liim employment, though just then he had 
nothing for him to do. The office was wretch- 
edly stocked, for which a beginner in the busi- 
ness might have abundant excuse. Franklin 
went to lodge and board at Bradford's for a time, 
until Keimer should send for him to work off a 
poem he was then setting up from his miserable 
stock of types. He had ingeniously put the 
press in working order for him already. In a 
little time, Keimer found something for him to 
do. Both the printers of the town were but poor 
w^orkmen, and had a meagre stock of cases, t^^pes, 
and machinery, with which to pursue their occu- 
pation. Franklin had an ambition to master his 
trade, and excel every one about him engaged in 
it. Bradford was an illiterate man, while Keimer 
was somewhat of a scholar; the latter Franklin 
found to be more or less knavish. He did not 
like to have the lad lodge at Bradford's while he 
worked for Jiiniy but he had no accommodation 
for him at his own house, and finally arranged 
the matter by procuring him lodgings at the 
house of Mr. Read, the same man in whose door 
he passed the young lady as he went along the 
street eating his roll. His chest of clothes had 
come round from New York by this time, and he 



AT HIS TRADE. 89 

said he now made a more respectable appearance 
in her eyes than when eating his bread. 

Here he lived, working industriously and mak- 
ing himself contented. He tried to forget Boston 
entirely, and let none of his friends there know of 
his whereabouts, save Collins. He saved his 
money, and began to lay the foundations of his 
success. One day, his brother-in-law, named 
Robert Holmes, who was captain of a coaster that 
plied between Boston and Delaware, happening to 
hear of Benjamin while he was below at New 
Castle, wrote him a letter, telling him of the grief 
of his friends at his long absence, pledging him- 
self that they all felt kindly toward him, and beg- 
ging him to return to them without delay. Frank- 
lin replied to his letter; but he told his story in so 
different a light that his relative changed his opin- 
ion very greatly of the cause and circumstances of 
the lad's sudden departure. As it happened, too, 
Governor Keith was at Kew Castle at the time, and 
in company with Captain Holmes when Franklin's 
letter arrived. The latter showed it to the Gover- 
nor, who read it, asked the Jad's age, and expressed 
his astonishment. He thought him a boy of great 
promise, who deserved to be encouraged; spoke of 
what poor printers there were in Philadelphia, and 



40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

held up the idea of Franklm's starting in business 
for himself He promised, for his part, to procure 
the public business for him, and to help him in 
every way he could. 

Governor Keith's connection with the young 
craftsman was of a strange character, resulting in 
no sort of profit. ]^ot long after this trifling 
occurrence at ISTew Castle, the Governor came 
directly over to Keimer's, the latter hurrying down 
stairs, filled with the idea that he was to receiv^e a 
call of importance. But great was his chagrin to 
hear his Excellency inquire for young Franklin. 
The Governor came up, ofiered the lad a profusion 
of civilities and compliments, blamed him very 
much for not having made himself known before, 
and, right before the face of Keimer, invited him 
to go to a tavern and taste some madeira with 
him. Franklin said he was as much astonished 
as Keimer could have been ; however, to the tavern 
he went, and there the Governor opened his plan for 
liim over the madeira. He would have the youth 
set up in business forthwith ; he ofiered him all 
the assistance possible ; a gentleman with him from 
Delaware also ofiered to get as much of the busi- 
ness from that gc^ernment as he could ; and it ap- 
peared as if fortune had come in for him at fiood tide. 



AT HIS TRADE. 41 

The lad expressed doubts as to how his father 
would view the matter, for on him he would have 
to rely for aid in stocking his office ; but the 
Governor promised to give him a letter to his 
father, explaining the whole project, and especially 
setting forth its advantages. He thought it all 
over well, and then resolved to return home at 
once and see his father. It was kept a secret in 
the meantime, however, and he remained at work 
with Keimer as before. ITow and then, he was 
invited to go and dine with the Governor, an 
honor which he duly prized. A little vessel was 
up for Boston, about the last of April. Franklin 
took his leave of Keimer, saying merely that he 
was going home to see his friends. The Governor 
gave him his letter, as he had promised, and in it 
showed the lad's father what an opportunity there 
was for the latter to make his fortune in Phila- 
delphia. 

The passage to Boston consumed two weeks. 

The vessel ran on a shoal going down the bay, 

and sprung a leak ; the weather was rough after 

they got to sea, and Franklin took his turn at the 

pumps with the rest. It was seven months since 

he ran away from Boston, in which time his 

friends had not heard a syllable of him ; for his- 
4* 



4i BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

brotlier-in-law Holmes had not yet got back, and 
lie had written nothing of him, either. The family 
were vastly surprised at his return ; yet they were 
all glad enough to see him, save his brother 
James. Benjamin went over to his pi-inting office 
to see him ; he w^as much better clad than when 
he used to work for him, having a new suit of 
clothes on, a watch in his pocket, and nearly five 
pounds in money. Franklin said his brother 
looked him all over, and turned to his work 
again. The hands in the office asked him all 
manner of questions ; what kind of a country it 
was where he had been, and how he liked it. 
One of them wanted to know what sort of money 
they had there ; whereupon Franklin drew out 
from his well-lined pocket a handful of silver 
coins, and spread it out temptingly before them. 
It was a new sight for them, paper being the only 
money used in Boston at that time. He pulled 
out his watch and showed them, too ; and finally, 
he gave them a dollar to drink, and took his leave 
of them all. His brother .was sullen and silent all 
the while ; in fact, he was very mad about the 
visit ; ajid when their mother afterward spoke to 
him of being reconciled to Benjamin, he declared 
in most violent language that he never would be 



AT IIIS TRADE. " 43 

reconciled to him in the world, for he had been 
insulted before his workmen by the runaway in a 
manner which he could never forget nor forgive. 
But the younger brother lived to do the elder a 
good turn, in after years, and to assist him when 
he most needed help, and when it was most wel- 
come. 

He handed Governor Keith's letter to his father, 
which occasioned the latter a still greater surprise. 
About this thne, too, Capt. Holmes arrived home, 
and the father read the letter to him, inquiring 
very particularly of Sir William Keith, and ex- 
pressing his astonishment that he should have 
thus offered to befriend a youth, who would not 
come to man's estate for three years. Holmes 
said all he could in favor of Keith and the project, 
but it did not influence the strong judgment of 
the parent; he set his face against the whole plan, 
and at once sat down and wrote a letter to the 
Governor, politely thanking him for the interest 
he had seen fit to take in his son, but positively 
declining to give him any aid at that time in be- 
ginning business for himself; he said he was much 
too young to undertake the responsibilities of 
business, and" it would require a good deal of 



44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

money, too, which a youth was not yet prepared 
to manage. 

His father would not deny, however, that he 
was pleased with the marks of attention shown the 
son ; and he readily consented to his return to 
Philadelphia, especially as there was such deep- 
seated ill feeling toward him on his brother's 
part, and he had already shown how well he could 
do when left to swim for himself. His father 
gave him some good advice before he went; en- 
joining him "to behave respectfully to the people 
there, endeavor to obtain the general esteem, and 
avoid lampooning and libelling," to which he 
thought the young man was too much inclined. 
He assured him that, if he was prudent, by the 
time he became one-and-twenty he might save 
enough to set himself up in business ; and that if 
he should have nearly enough money for that pur- 
pose, but not quite enough, he would then make 
up the difference to him. This was all his father 
would then do for him. His parents both pre- 
sented him with little gifts, as tokens of their 
aftection, and he left home again, embarking for 
"New York. This time he went with their bless- 
ings and prayers. 

The vessel put in at ISTewport, where Benjamin 



AT HIS TRADE. 45 

called to see his brother John, who was settled 
there. He was received very cordially, having 
always been a favorite with this brother. An 
acquaintance of this brother, named Yernon, learn- 
ing that Benjamin w^as going to Philadelphia, and 
having a debt of thirty-nve pounds due him in 
Pennsylvania, requested him to collect it there, 
and keep the money until it should be called for. 
This money afterwards gave him considerable 
anxiety, from the fact, that when he had collected 
it he appropriated a great part of it to his own 
use, and then felt troubled lest he should any day 
be called on for it. 

Setting sail from ^N'ewport, the vessel received 
on board several passengers; among them, a 
Quaker lady, with her servants, and a couple of 
young women w^ho appeared to be travelling to- 
gether. Franklin, young as he was, and unac- 
quainted with the w^ays of worldly persons, became 
somewhat familiar with these two young women, 
w^hich excited the attention of the Quaker lady ; 
and as she had already held a little conversation 
with him on other matters, she ventured to break 
her mind to him on this. Taking him aside, 
therefore, she said in a kind manner, — '' Young 
man, I am concerned for thee, as thou hast no 



46 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

friend with thee, and seems not to know much of 
the world, or of the snares youth is exposed to ; 
depend upon it, these are very had women ; I 
can see it by all their actions ; and if thee art not 
upon thy guard, they will draw thee into some 
danger ; they are strangers to thee ; and I advise 
thee, in a friendly concern for thy welfare, to have 
no acquaintance with them." The youth was sur- 
prised ; but she told him of some things which she 
had seen and heard, and he was soon convinced 
she knew best about it. The girls told him where 
they lived, as soon as they reached ^ew York, 
and invited him to come and see them ; but he 
was careful not to go near them, wisely remember- 
ing the Quaker lady's warnings. The day after, 
the captain of the vessel missed several articles 
from the cabin ; the rooms of these women were 
search'ed by an officer, and the stolen property 
found upon them. They were punished as com- 
mon thieves. 

His friend Collins, whom he met on this visit 
home, had started for Philadelphia before him, 
and got as far as ]N'ew York. When Franklin 
reached the latter city, he found him already 
there. Collins, however, had fallen into a drink- 
ing habit since Franklin's first absence from 



AT Ills TRADE. 47 

home, a matter which his friend greatly de- 
plored ; and when the latter saw him once more 
on his arrival in !N"ew York, he found th^t he had 
been drunk every day since landing. He had 
gambled too, and thus lost all his money : so that 
Franklin was obliged to loan him enough to dis- 
charge the cost of his passage to Philadelphia- 
Collins was a man of parts, and very well read. 

The Governor of ISTew York, whose name was 
Burnet, — a son of the famous Bishop Burnet, of 
England, — had heard of a passenger's being on 
board who had a supply of books, and asked the 
captain to bring him to him. Franklin went 
along to answer this second gubernatorial requisi- 
tion, but declined taking his friend Collins with 
him, on account of his sad condition. The Gov- 
ernor received the youthful printer with great 
civility, showed him into his library, and began 
to talk very familiarly on books and authors. It 
was a compliment which young Franklin appre- 
ciated. 

He went on with his journey to the city of his 
adoption. On the way, he collected Mr. Yernon's 
debt ; and glad enough, too, was he of the funds, 
for he could not have got along without them. 
He tried to help Collins to a situation, but those 



48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to whom he applied saw what his unfortunate 
habits Avere, and declined employing him. Then 
Collins began to pester Franklin for money ; he 
knew the latter had the Yernon debt about him, 
and that encouraged him to borrow. He pro- 
mised, of course, to pay all back when he got 
into business, and in this way took up the larger 
part of it. 

Collins was sailing with his friend Franklin 
and others, on the Delaware, one day, and, being 
more or less intoxicated, refused very crossly to 
do anything to help to propel the boat. He 
declared, however, that he would be rowed 
home; but Franklin as stoutly declared that 
they would not row him. Said Collins, in reply, 
"You must row me, or stay all night on the 
water, — as you please." The rest were ready to 
give up to him ; but Franklin was resolved to do 
no such thing, and he persisted in his refusal. 
Upon this, Collins swore he would mahe him 
row; and, clambering along over the others to 
reach him, he came up and struck out at him ! 
Just at the right instant, Franklin placed his 
head under the fellow's legs, and then rising up 
in his seat, threw him heels over head into the 
river ! He was an excellent swimmer, and that 



AT HIS TRADE. 49 

Franklin knew ; therefore, he gave his mind 
little anxiety about the result. When the victim 
had managed to swim around, and got ready to 
lay his hand on the side of the hoatto draw him- 
self in, the rowers fetched a vigorous pull with 
their oars and put the boat clear of his reach. So 
it was several times ; whenever he would swim 
up and get all ready to lay hold, away went the 
boat again. He grew even more incensed than 
before, and, in answer to frequent inquiries, 
obstinately declared that he would not row at 
all. He became so tired at length that it was 
thought prudent to draw him in again; wet and 
out of temper, he cut but a sorry figure. But it 
was the last of Franklin's acquaintance with his 
old and early friend ; they had little to say to one 
another after that. The poor fellow went out to 
the West Indies, not long afterwards, as a pre- 
ceptor for the sons of a gentleman at Barbadoes. 
He promised Franklin he would remit for the 
money he had borrowed of him, from the first 
of his own receipts ; but the latter never heard 
a word more from him, nor received back a 
single pound of the borrowed money. 

Franklin's reflection on this occurrence, on 
lookins: it all over and seeino^ how he acte'd with 



5 



50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN". 

Mr. Yernoii's mone}^, was this : it was one of the 
first great errors of his life ; and his father knew 
better than he did himself that he was yet too 
young to undertake the responsibilities of busi- 
ness and the management of money. 

Governor Keith still followed him up, notwith- 
standing the decision of his father. He told him 
to make out an inventory of the articles he would 
want in order to furnish a shop, and show it to 
him. Franklin had kept Keith's advances a 
secret from Keimer and everybody else, up to 
this time ; had he confided in any second person, 
he might have got advice in the matter which 
would have materially aided him. But he could 
not suspect that such generous ofifers were in the 
least insincere. Accordingly, he sat down and 
drew up his little inventory, making the cost of 
it amount to one himdred pounds sterling, — or 
about five hundred dollars. The Governor ex- 
pressed himself pleased with the result, and then 
turned and asked Franklin if it would not be 
better for him to be on the ground himself when 
these aj'ticles were purchased, so that he could 
select his types and see to the quality of every 
article. Of course, the young man answered that 
it would ; and the Governor added that, while he 



AT HIS TRADE. 51 

was over tliere in London, lie miglit improve the 
opportunity to make acquaintance and establish 
correspondence in the bookselhng and stationery 
business. 

Thereupon Gov. Keith urged him to make 
ready to set sail. The ship was named the Annis, 
and the only one at that time making a passage 
between Philadelphia and London. It would be 
months before she would sail, however; and 
Franklin improved the interval, working for Kei- 
mer still. He says that during this period he was 
fretting about the money he had lent Collins, and 
in daily fear lest Yernon should call on him to 
pay it over. Keimer and he got along very well 
together ; Franklin had not yet let him into his 
plan of starting the printing business for himself. 
They indulged as much in discussion as ever. 
Previous to this, and among the earliest of his 
studies, Franklin had learned what is styled the 
Socratic method of logic, which is by asking ques- 
tions, instead of committing oneself to any par- 
ticular view at first, and so winding up one's 
opponent with nothing but his own answers. The 
chief art of this style of argument lies in starting 
a question that appears to have no sort of relation 
to the topic under discussion, and leading your 



62 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

opponent out where lie little' suspects. The >So- 
cratic method of arguing was a favorite one with 
Franklin, from the time in his early youth when 
he first became acquainted with it until the end 
of his public career. It may also serve to explain 
the pointedness of his observations, the terseness 
of his remarks, and the shrewdness of his rea- 
soning. 

The friendship existing between Franklin and 
Keimer was of a queer texture. Each practised 
his wit upon the other, and fought as shy in an 
encounter as two pugilists. Keinier became afraid 
of Franklin's questions at last, and before answer- 
ing them, would stop and ask — "what do you 
mean to infer from that ?" He was a free thinker, 
and proposed to establish a new sect ; he was to 
preach the doctrines, while Franklin was to con- 
found the opponents ! Keimer wore his beard of 
full length, and kept the seventh day of the week 
for his Sabbath. Franklin was averse to both 
these points, which, with the other, were essential. 
So to compromise the matter, Franklin agreed to 
subscribe to them, if Keimer would give up the 
use of animal food. The latter thought he could 
not live without eating meat; but Franklin knew 
better, and assured him he would be all the 



AT HIS TRADE. 53 

healthier for it. Pie was a great eater, at best, 
and a change of diet would work an improvement. 
At last both consented to the proposal, and lived 
up to it for three months ; Franklin confessed that 
he was as desirous of pleasing himself by half- 
starving his friend, as anything else. Their pro- 
visions were purchased, cooked, and brought to 
them by a woman in the neighborhood, for whom 
Franklin made out a list of forty dishes, none of 
which had parts either of flesh, fish, or fowl. It 
brought down their. living expenses, too, to an ex- 
ceedingly low figure, eighteen pence sterling per 
week. 

Franklin got on Avith his new diet famously, for 
he was somewhat used to it ; but Keimer was a 
great sufferer by the change. Franklin said he 
"longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered a 
roast pig !" He asked Franklin and a couple of 
female friends to come and dine off it with him ; 
%it as it chanced to be brought a little sooner on 
the table than he expected, Keimer drew up and 
ate the whole before the rest came ! 

Meantime, Franklin was extending his acquaint- 
ances. He gives a list of the young men of the 
town'he knew, and mentions particularly that they 

are lovers of reading, " Many pleasant walks we 
5* 



54 BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. 

have liad together," says he, in his autobiography, 
" ou Sundays in the woods, on the banks of the 
Schuylkill, where we read to one another, and 
conferred on what we had read." One of his young 
friends was given to writing verses, from which 
practice a second of the number tried to dissuade 
him ; telling him that if he would succeed in busi- 
ness, he must give his thoughts to nothing but 
business, and that poetry would only stand in his 
way. Franklin, too, was not over favorable to the 
versifying practice, since his father had taken some 
of his ballad performances in hand for him ; he 
admitted that one might attempt to write verses, 
but only for the greater command of language 
which it gave him. 

He paid marked attention to Miss Read, at this 
period, and confesses that he had great respect and 
affection for her, and good reason to think she 
entertained the same for him. Possibly they 
might have married even then, though neither v^ 
above eighteen years okl ; but the girl's mother 
dissuaded them, saying it would be more proper 
after his return from England, if at all, than before 
going; and very likel}' she wished to see how the 
young man promised to succeed in his new busi- 



AT HIS TRADE. 55 

ness. A mother's counsels never come amiss in 
a matter of this kind. 

The names of the four young men who were hia 
closest friends, were Charles Osborne, Joseph 
Watson, James Ralph, and Charles Brockden. It 
was Ralph who was given to poetry. Franklin 
says that Pope finally cured him of being a verse- 
maker, and he afterwards became a good enouo-h 
writer of prose. Watson died in his friend Frank- 
lin's arms, a few years after, ''being" — as the 
latter admits — "the best of our set." Osborne 
went to the West Indies, where he became emi- 
nent as a lawyer, accumulated moiley, and died 
young. Franklin made an agreement with him, 
that whichever died first should, if possible, come 
back and pay a friendly visit to the other, acquaint- 
ing him with the state of things in the other world ; 
but he adds that "he never fulfilled his promise." 
Previous to sailing for England, he was very 
mpquently at the house of the Governor, where 
the project of the printing office was the prominent 
topic of their conversation. The governor was 
lavish with his promises, as usual ; he told the 
youth that he should furnish him with several 
letters of introduction, beside letters of credit with 
which to purchase his outfit for the printing office. 



56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Every time these letters were alluded to, Franklin 
was told to call for them on a future day ; and 
still it was a future day, and seemed likely to be 
only that. 

The ship, too, was delayed, and delayed very 
much as the foreman put off the performance of 
his promises ; but when the time did come for her 
to depart, Franklin called at his house to take his 
leave and get his promised letters. The Govern- 
or's secretary, however, even then found an excuse 
for the Governor, saying that he was very busily 
engaged writing, and could not attend to him ; 
but he pledged himself that the letters should be 
aboard the ship at 'New Castle, to which Franklin 
immediately repaired. What was his surprise to 
find the Governor there before him ! His Secre- 
tary had excused him on the ground of being en- 
gaged writing; and now here he was at New 
Castle ! Franklin w^as not a little puzzled, as he 
well might be. He was undertaking great thin^ 
on a basis that each day looked more and more 
Blender. 

He had taken formal leave of Miss Read before 
joining the ship, and exchanged promises of mar- 
riage with her. He also went around among his 
friends and bade them all farewell. His friend 



AT HIS TRADE. 5T 

Ralph embarked at the same time, leaving his 
wife aud child behind j it afterwards came out 
that he had some difficulty with his wife's rela- 
tions, and resolved to leave her on their hands 
altogether. There were several gentlemen of 
character and respectability on board, w^ho occu- 
pied the whole cabin, and compelled Franklin and 
his friend Ralph to take up with accommodations 
in the steerage ; as nobody knew them, they were 
not taken special notice of. But Col. French — 
who was with Gov. Keith when Franklin was in- 
vited to the tavern by that gentlemen to taste his 
Madeira and talk over this very project of going 
to England, — came on board the ship just before 
she sailed, and, recognizing the young printer, 
paid him much attention ; the others seeing it, and 
knowing Col. French to be a personage of official 
importance in the province of Delaware, at once 
condescended to take some notice of Franklin 
themselves; and he and his friend Ralph were 
both of them invited by the other passengers to 
take up their quarters in the cabin, one of the 
gentlemen having concluded to stay behind, thus 
making room for them. 

Franklin asked the Captain of the vessel for the 
letters from Gov. Keith which were to be under 



58 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

his care, and whicli lie understood Col. French 
had brought on board. He was informed that all 
the letters and dispatches were put into the bag 
together, and could not well be got at then ; but 
he should be allowed to pick them out before 
they reached England. This pacified him in a 
degree, and they set sail with favoring winds. 
Had Franklin been older, he would never have 
undertaken this voyage without so much as 
seeing his letters of introduction and of credit, or 
even knowing if they were on board ; but youth 
is both blind and brave. It would not be deli- 
cious youth, if its light feet were shod with the 
lead of old men's wisdom. 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 59 



CHAPTEE III. 

TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 

THE passage to England was marked by no 
event of special interest. "When the ship 
arrived in the English Channel, the captain 
gave him leave to look in the bag for his letters, 
which he proceeded to do, taking out such as 
concerned him and the business on which he had 
come. On the day before Christmas, 1724, he 
arrived in London. On the way across the 
Atlantic, he had fortunately made the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. Denham, an upright and honorable 
merchant of Philadelphia, whose advice in a 
period of trouble was of the first importance to 
him, and who remained his friend so long as he 
lived. 

One of his letters was addressed to the King's 
Printer, and another to a stationer. He delivered 
the letter to the stationer first, stating that it was 
from Gov. Keith. The stationer broke the seal,' 



60 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

looked it over, and said, "I don't know such a 
person;" then, a moment after, he said, "Oh, 
this is from Riddlesden ! I have lately found 
him to be a complete rascal, and I will have 
nothing to do with him, nor receive letters from 
him !" And he gave back the letter mto the 
young man's hand, and turned on his heel. This 
w^as a great surprise and disappointment. On 
looking over the whole affair, Franklin was still 
more astonished to find that none of the letters 
were from Keith. Under the circumstances, 
what was he to do, — a youth, a stranger on a 
strange shore, deceived by a man whose position 
placed him above the reach even of suspicion in 
his mind? He bethought himself of Mr. Den- 
ham ; and to that gentleman he went straightway, 
and laid before him the whole case. Mr. Den- 
ham thereupon exposed Keith's character to 
3'oung Franklin, without reserve ; and told him 
there was no sort of probability that he had 
written any letters for him whatever ; as for his 
letters of credit, he had no credit to give, and it 
made the merchant laugh to think of it. "But," 
said the young and friendless printer, " what am 
I to do ?" The merchant advised him to think 
no more of Keith or of his schemes, but to try 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 61 

and obtain employment in some London printing 
office, where be could gain greater skill at bis 
trade, and return to America better prepared 
than ever to set up in business. It was sound 
advice, and tbe young man bad tbe good sense to 
follow it. 

Tbis is tbe way Franklin bimself speaks of this 
transaction : '' Wbat sball we tbink of a Gov- 
ernor playing sucb pitiful tricks, and imposing 
so grossly on a poor ignorant boy I It was a 
liabit be bad acquired. He wisbed to please 
everybody ; and, baving little to give, be gave 
expectations." 

He at once took lodgings witb bis friend 
Ralpb, at tbree sbillings and sixpence a week; 
and bunted up some poor relations, but tbey 
were even poorer tban bimself ! His friend was 
out of funds, and borrowed of Franklin as long 
as tbe latter would or could lend. Franklin got 
work almost immediately, at Palmer's, a well 
know^n printing office of London ; and tbere be 
remained for almost a year. He says bimself be 
was pretty diligent, yet be spent quite as raucb 
money as be ougbt witb Ralpb, going to tbe 
tbeatres. Tbe latter soon forgot bis wife and 
cbild in America, and Franklin began to let Miss 



62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Read pass out of Ids tliouglits likewise. That 
circumstance he counts up as another among the 
decided errors of his life. lie never wrote her 
but one letter, and then only to let her know that 
he was not likely very soon to return. 

In the London printing office, he was put upon 
a job of setting type for Wollaston's "Religion 
of ]N'ature." As he got into it, he thought the 
reasoning faulty, and sat down and wrote a piece 
himself, criticising the same. He entitled it " A 
Dissertation on Liberty and N'ecessity, Pleasure 
and Pain." This at only nineteen ! He had 
studied Locke and Socrates to some purpose. 
His employer at once raised his opinion of his 
youthful apprentice, though he condemned the 
young man's principles. He prhited his own 
pamphlet, however, and reckoned it as still an- 
other of his errors. At this time he managed to 
lay in with a dealer in 'second-hand books, who 
permitted him to read and return the books, for 
a given price. Franklin improved this privilege 
to the utmost. His pamphlet brought him into 
acquaintance with a Dr. Lyons, who had written 
a book on "The Infallibility of Human Judg. 
ment." This gentleman paid him great atten- 
tion; carried him to an alehouse in London 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 63 

known as "The Horns," and introduced liim to 
Dr. Mandeville, the author of the ''Fable of the 
Bees," who was at the head of a club there. At 
Batson's Coffee House, Dr. Lyons presented him 
to Dr. Pemberton, who promised to take him to 
see Sir Isaac ^N'ew^ton ; but that privilege he never 
enjoyed. 

He was invited to a nobleman's house in 
Bloomsbury Square, from having brought from 
America a purse made of asbestos, which fire w^ill 
not burn. The nobleman bought it of him to 
add to his collection of curiosities, and paid him 
a round sum for it. Ealph pretty soon left him, 
going into the country to teach a little school, 
and taking his friend Franklin's name to estab- 
lish himself in business with 1 It was flattering 
to young Franklin to know that his name was 
worth something to begin upon. Ealph and he 
had a falling out at last, about the young w^oman 
with whom the former had been keeping com- 
pany. He had left her rather under Franklin's 
care, and the latter had from time to time 
assisted her with small loans in Ralph's absence ; 
but he having acted improperly to her one day, 
she resented his conduct with spirit, wrote to 
Kalph about it, and at once brought the school- 



64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

master up to London. He expressed himself 
very freely to Franklin on liis conduct, and said 
that now all his obligations to the latter (for 
money lent) were discharged. But Franklin 
never counted on getting a penny back, the 
vagabond having nothing out of which to pay. 
This, however, ended their acquaintance. 

"WHiile in the office, for the sake of getting 
needful exercise, he worked at the press, — the 
heaviest labor about the establishment. He 
thought he was not so well unless he mixed up. 
this kind of work with his type-setting. He was 
a strict water drinker, all the time; while the rest 
of the hands, numbering almost fifty, were liberal 
consumers of beer. He thought he could lift 
more and work harder on water than they could 
on their beer. The hands used to call him the 
"Water American;" yet they could not fail to 
see that he who drank only water was stronger 
than they who drank beer. 

There was a boy who always brought in the 
beer from the neighboring alehouse. The man 
who worked at the press with him used to drink, 
every day, a pint before breakfast, a pint with his 
bread and cheese at breakfast, a pint between 
breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 65 

about six o'clock in the afternoon, and a final 
pint when his day's work was all done ! Frank- 
lin thought it abominable, and it was. Three 
quarts of beer every day ! The workman thought 
that strong beer, of course, made Jam strong. 
Franklin sat down to show him how mistaken he 
was : he demonstrated that the actual strength- 
giving qualities of beer were in proportion to the 
amount of barley flour dissolved in the water it is 
made of; that there was more flour in a penny- 
worth of bread ; and that he would get the most 
real strength by eating that amount of bread, 
with nothing but a pint of water, than by drink- 
ing down a whole quart of beer. But the man 
would not be convinced. He kept on drinking 
his beer, and always had four or five shillings to 
slice off" from his wages every Saturday night, 
which he might just as well have saved. "And 
thus," says Franklin, "these poor devils keep 
themselves always under." 

Finally he left the press-room, and was trans- 
ferred to the composing-room. It was a custom, 
at that time, for each new comer to pay ^yq shil- 
lings to purchase drink for all, and that sum was 
demanded of Franklin by the workmen ; having 

already paid it to the pressmen, he refused it, 
6^ 



6Q BENJAMIN PRANKLIN. 

thinking it an imposition, and so thought the 
master, too. He stood out for two or three 
weeks ; but whenever he came back to his case, 
after crossing the floor or leaving the room, he 
was sure to find his ^'sorts'' all mixed up, and 
other tricks practised freely upon him, which the 
rest ascribed to the antics of the "chapel ghost," 
— chapel being another name for printing office ; 
and these impositions were followed up so indus- 
triously, he finally thought best to give up his 
resolution and pay what was demanded of him. 
They told him the "ghost" always haunted those 
who w^ere not regularly admitted to their num- 
ber by the payment of the fee, and would pro- 
bably haunt him till he had paid it. He said he 
was " convinced of the folly of being on ill terms 
with those one is to live with continually." From 
that day forward, he exercised a decided influence 
over the whole office. He proposed some reason- 
able alterations in the " chapel's" laws, and suc- 
ceeded in carrying his point, too. 

Many of the men left oft" drinking beer alto- 
gether, from the contagion of his example. They 
found they could have a large porringer of hot 
water-gruel for their breakfast, crumbled with 
bread, spiced with pepper, and a piece of butter 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. G7 

thrown in, for just what thej would have to pay 
for a half pint of beer ; they felt better both in 
their pockets and heads from the change. The 
beer-drinkers, however, were continually obliged 
to borrow money through the week ; and Frank- 
lin used to stand at the pay-table on Saturday 
nights, to take up the money from one and an- 
other's wages which was due him. Some weeks 
he was paid as much as thirty shillings out of 
their accounts. His skill as a satirist or riggite 
made him very popular with them. The master 
likewise esteemed him for always being at the 
office on Monday ; with those who drank beer it 
was ''Blue Monday," — or what they also styled 
" St. Monday," — the effect of the Saturday night's 
and Sunday's carousals not being yet over. The 
master found him so good a hand that he put 
him on despatch work, for which he was accus- 
tomed to obtain better pay. He changed his 
lodgings, too, to a place opposite the Eomish 
Chapel; the house was kept by a widow lady, 
and his room was up three pairs of stairs, back. 
She would not take him to lodge until she had 
first sent to inquire about him at the place where 
he last was ; and then she agreed to take him at 
the same rate, — cheaper than she otherwise 



'6S BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

would, for the sake of having the protection of a 
male lodger in the house. 

The widow was an invalid, and had become a 
Romanist. Franklin used to go into her room 
and take supper with her occasionally, enjoying 
her conversation very greatly. She could tell him 
stories of what had occurred so far back as the 
times of Charles the Second. "When he talked to 
her of moving, in order to reduce his expenses and 
save as much more as he could, she offered to take 
off two shillings a week rather than lose so good 
a lodger. 

He became acquainted, too, with an eccentric 
maiden lady who lodged in the house ; she was 
seventy years of age, and lived in the most retired 
manner possible. She was likewise a Catholic, 
and tried to lead the life of a nun, up in her high 
London attic. She gave away to charity all her 
property, after reserving only twelve pounds a year 
to subsist on herself; and even out of this meagre 
sum she still saved something to bestow in char- 
ity. She took no nourishment but water-gruel, 
and had no fire save what was sufficient to boil it. 
Here she had continued to live for years, none of 
the occupants of the house disturbing her, but 
rather preferring to have her stay, as they were 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 69 

Catliolics themselves. Seeing that a priest used 
to come to confess her, Franklin had the curiosity 
to ask her how she could find employment for a 
confessor, living so far out of the reach of ^in and 
temptation. " Oh," replied she, "it is impossible 
to avoid vain tlwughts !" 

Fraiiklin had been a good swimmer from his 
early boyhood, and could not be surpassed in the 
water by any of his companions. He taught a 
couple of friends to swim from going but twice 
into the river. These two friends introduced him 
to some country gentlemen, and they all went to 
Chelsea by water, to see the College and certain 
curiosities there. Coming back, the company 
asked young Franklin to show them how he 
could perform with his limbs in the river; where- 
upon he stripped and jnmped in, and swam from 
near Chelsea to Blackfriars, performing various 
feats by the way, that greatly surprised and 
delighted them. One of his friends afterwards 
proposed to travel over Europe together, giving 
exhibitions and instructions ; on asking his good 
friend Mr. Denham's advice about the matter, he 
put the young man on the right track again at 
once, dissuading him from such a project, and urg- 



70 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

iiig him to make ready to return veiy soon with 
himself to Philadelphia. 

Mr. Denham was about to import a large stock 
of goods, and proposed to Franklin to take him 
as his clei*k, — to keep his books, copy his letters, 
and take care of his store. That gentleman fur- 
ther promised him that, as soon as he should be- 
come familiar with business, he should be sent out 
with a cargo to the West Indies, bearing commis- 
sions from others, which would increase his profits. 
The young man was altogether pleased with the 
proposal ; he had grown tired of London, and his 
thoughts reverted to the happy days he had spent 
in Philadelphia. He agreed with the merchant, 
therefore, for fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania 
money, — which was less than he was then earning, 
but with a larger prospect. He gave up the print- 
ing business, as he thought, forever. Previous to 
the sailing of the vessel, he went around with Mr. 
Denham, to observe the operations connected with 
collecting and packing a stock of goods to be sent 
beyond the seas. 

Just before he left, he received an invitation 
from a nobleman. Sir William Wyndham, to call 
and see him ; the latter had two sons, who were 
about starting on their travels, and whom he 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 71 

wished Franklin to teach the art of swimming, 
promising to pay him handsomely. The noble- 
man had heard of the swimming feat performed 
b}^ Franklin, the news having spread rapidly. Had 
Franklin been addressed in this way before he had 
engaged with Mr. Denham, it is quite probable he 
would have closed with the proposal, and remained 
in England to teach a swimming-school. But he 
came back to America, to deal with one of these 
sons of Sir William Wyndham, — then become Earl 
of Egremont, — in a very different way. 

He was in London some eighteen months ; he 
worked hard all the time, and says he spent very 
little upon himself but what it cost him to see 
plays and read books. His friend Ralph had 
proved a sort of nightmare for him; he owed him 
twenty-seven pounds, and this debt kept Franklin 
poor all the time. Still he loved the vagabond ; 
he had known him in other days and places, and 
the bond was a strong one. He says he had learned 
something by going abroad, and he had read con- 
siderably. 

The vessel in which he embarked, sailed from 
England on the 23d of July, 1T26. "While at sea, 
he deliberately formed a plan for the future con- 
duct of his life ; a plan which he resolutely adhered 



72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to through active manhood and to the close of 
an honored okl age. When he reached home, he 
found Miss Read married ; he would have been 
ashamed to meet her hut for this strange circum- 
stance : her friends had persuaded her that Frank- 
lin would never return, and urged her to marry a 
man named Eogers, a potter by trade. 

He met Governor Keith on the street, who 
seemed ashamed to look at the young printer, and 
passed on without speaking ; the Governor had 
been deposed in Franklin's absence, and another 
put in his place. Keimer, the Philadelphia printer, 
had greatly improved his condition, in the mean 
time. Mr. Denham opened a store at once on 
Water street, and he and his new clerk set to work 
displaying their goods. Franklin gave his whole 
attention to his emplo^'er's business, learned how 
to keep accounts and to sell goods, and very soon 
became expert in his new calling. He boarded 
and lodged with Mr. Denham, who Avas a father 
to him indeed. 

Matters went on swimmingly until the follow- 
ing February, when both merchant and clerk were 
taken seriously ill — the latter with the pleurisy. 
It came near carrying him off ; in fact, he says he 
had given the world up entirely, and felt not a 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 73 

little disappointed to find lie was recovering ! He 
regretted that he should have " all the disagreeable 
work to go over again," at some time or another. 
But though the clerk survived, the eraploj-er died. 
He left Franklin a small token of his love and es- 
teem, and the young man's connection with mer- 
cantile business ceased from that day forward. 

His brother-in-law. Captain Holmes, happened 
to be in the city at the time, and advised him to 
go back to his trade again. Keimer made him an 
offer of good wages by the year, to come and take 
the management of his printing ofiice, and, after 
much hesitation, he took up with it. He had 
heard bad stories of this man's character from his 
wife's relatives, while in London, and he hesitated 
for that reason. But nothing better promised, and 
he took what he could get first. The oflace was 
full of raw hands, and Franklin soon saw thatKei- 
mer's object in ofifering him large wages was a 
purely selfish one : he would have the London 
workman teach these poorer tradesmen, and then 
turn him ofiT to shift for himself. But he made 
no needless complaint; he went about setting the 
office in order and getting the workmen in the 
most serviceable condition. Among the printers 

in the office was an Oxford scholar. 

7 



74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

He got on very comfortably with the hands, for 
they respected him for his skill and were glad to 
learn of him. He says that, as Keimer did not 
work on Saturday, that being his Sabbath, he had 
" two days for reading." He was contented and 
happy; nothing gave him uneasiness but the 
money of Vernon's which he had long ago collected 
and lent to Collins. His ingenuity was a real 
source of profit to the establishment ; for when 
the office needed types and engravings of a cer- 
tain kind, and even ink, Franklin went to work 
and manufactured them. He says himself that he 
was ^^ quite 2i factotum.'" But things soon began 
to betray a change : the more skilful the work- 
men under him became, the less needKeimer had 
of his services ; and so the employer searched for 
pretexts on which to base a feeling of dissatisfac- 
tion, and finally a quarrel. On paying Franklin 
his second quarter's wages, Iveimer told him that 
they were too mucli^ and thought he should take 
off a part from them. From that time he behaved 
uncivilly, and pretty soon with undisguised imper- 
tinence and hostility. Franklin, however, bore all 
with exemplary patience. 

But, one day, Keimer looked up at the upper 
window of the office from the street, where a hub- 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 75 

bub of some sort had taken place, and chanced 
to spy Franklin with his head out to see what was 
the matter. It was the occasion he wanted. The 
irritated employer bawled out to Franklin, in a 
loud and angry tone, to take his head in and mind 
his business ; and coupled his order with some 
abusive words that could not but oifend the 
young printer exceedingly; all the neighbors 
heard it, and that only served to make the matter 
worse. Soon after, Keimer came up-stairs, and 
continued his violent and abusive lano^uasre. 
High words were given on both sides. Keimer 
was sorry he w^as obliged to give Franklin a 
quarter's notice, before he could get rid of him. 
Franklin replied that he would not hold him to 
that^ but was ready to be quit of him even then : 
and he did take his hat, and walk straight out 
of doors, telling one of the workmen, named 
Meredith, to pick up what belonged to him and 
bring them round that evening to his room. 

When Meredith entered his apartment at night, 
he found Franklin seriously thinking about re- 
turning to Boston, and dissuaded him from it. 
He assured the latter that Keimer was already in 
debt for all the stock in the office and store, that 
his creditors were beginning to be uneasy, that 



76 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

lie kept liis shop but poorly, sold for ready money 
without making a profit, kept loose accounts of 
his businsss, and would soon have to fail, at any 
rate; then there would be a good chance for an- 
other man to step into the business. Besides, 
Meredith reminded him that his own time with 
Xeimer would be out in the spring, and proposed 
to him to set up business then together : he to 
furnish the stock and Franklin the shill, in the co- 
partnership, and the profits to be shared equally. 
Franklin accepted a proposal that promised so 
fairly. Meredith's father also approved of it, 
especially as he rejoiced at Franklin's influence 
over his son in curing him of the habit of dram- 
drinking. 

Franklin made out a list of things which would 
be wanted in the new office, and handed it to 
Meredith's father. '1 hey were to be sent for to 
London, and all was to be kept secret until they 
should arrive; meantime, our young printer 
friend was to try and subsist by obtaining work 
at his trade. He applied to the other printing- 
office, but could get nothing there ; and so he 
remained idle, and was likely to be, until the 
stock should come over from England. But 
Keimer chanced to have a prospect of a job of 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 77 

printing some paper-money for N"ew Jersey, re- 
quiring cuts and various types such as only 
Franklin could supply ; and as lie was afraid that 
his rival, Bradford, would now employ Franklin 
and get the job away from him, he sent the latter 
a very proper message to come and work for him 
again, adding that old friends should not part for 
a few words. Meredith advised his taking up 
with the offer, and he did. Matters went on 
then more pleasantly than ever. Keimer got the 
ISTew Jersey job, and Franklin made a coj^per- 
plate press to do it with, — the first, he says, that 
had been seen in this country. He also cut 
several ornaments and checks for the bills. Then 
he went over with Keimer to Burlington, and 
both executed the work there to the satisfaction 
of the authorities. Keimer received a large 
amount of money for the job, and was thus 
saved from going overboard in business. 

Young Franklin made a good many valued 
friends while he stayed in Burlington, including 
several of the first men in the place. One of 
them, an elderly man and the surveyor-general 
of the province, told him confidentially that he 
(Franklin) would supplant his employer in due 

time, and set up in business for himself in Phila- 

7* 



78 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

delphia, where lie would be sure to make his 
fortune. He little knew that the young man had 
just that plan in mind at the time. 

Franklin discovered, too, while there, that his 
employer was jealous of him, because of his 
superior attainments and the attention they 
naturally attracted from others. The young 
printer had been a constant reader, and therefore 
had a better stored and better disciplined mind 
than his employer. In fact, it is to this that he 
ascribes the partiality which was shown him on 
that occasion, and often afterwards. Of Keimer 
he says that '' he was an odd creature, ignorant 
of common life, fond of rudely opposing received 
opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness, enthusi- 
astic in some points of religion, and a little 
knavish withal." 

Three months were thus passed in Burlington, 
during which time he made all possible improve- 
ment in every way. In his account of himself 
along through this period, he speaks very plainly 
of the loose habits of thinking, on religious topics 
especially, into which he had fallen. He says 
that he began to doubt of revelation itself. A 
work against Deism fell into his hands ; but its 
perusal wrought just an opposite eifect from the 



TO ENGLAND AND BACK. 79 

one to be expected. The arguments which were 
quoted merely to be answered, made a deeper 
impression on his mind than the refutations ; and 
he soon became, in fact, a confirmed Deist. 

His sober reflections, however, tended to cor- 
rect these opinions afterwards. He confessed 
that this doctrine, though it might be true, was 
not very usefuL He felt sincere regrets for 
having written and published the pamphlet he 
did in London, w^ith the motto " AVhatever is, is 
rio'ht." It did not look to him now like so clever 
a performan"ce as he once thought it. He says 
that, about this time, he became convinced that 
'Hruth, sincerity, and integrity,'' were of the utmost 
importance in dealings between man and man, as 
w^ell as in the happiness of life ; and he formed 
"written resolutions," to practice them so long as 
he lived. He confessed that Revelation had no 
weight with him merely as such ; yet he cher- 
ished an opinion that, "though certain actions 
might not be bad because they were forbidden by 
it, or good because it commanded them, yet, pro- 
bably, those actions niight be forbidden because 
they were bad for us, or commanded because they 
were beneficial to us." 

He acknowledges that he was carried safely 



80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

through the temptations of youth by '' the kind 
hand of Providence or some guardian angel ;'* 
and he felt grateful that it was so. Away from 
the restraints of home and friends, thrown among 
persons and scenes to which he was unaccus- 
tomed, he had reason afterwards to. rejoice that 
he preserved even " a tolerable character to begin 
the world with," and determined to preserve and 
make the best possible use of it. 



IN BUSINESS. 81 



CHAPTER lY. 



IN BUSINESS. 



THE new fonts of type came from London 
soon after Franklin returned to Philadel- 
phia. He and his partner had fortunately 
settled up all their business with Keimer before 
their arrival, so that the latter had not so much 
as heard of the movement before it was all ready 
to be set on foot. In those days, when there was 
but one, or at most but two printing offices in a 
town of the size of Philadelphia, such an event 
would very soon become jjublic, and of course 
excite more or less talk and commotion. It 
would be no such an event now, even in any one 
of the many thriving villages of the country. 

The new firm rented a house near the Phila- 
delphia Market, at twenty-four pounds a year; 
but in order to reduce the rent, they let in a 
glazier and his family, who were to pay a good 
share of it to the young printers, while the latter 



82 BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 

boarded with them. It was a thrifty way of sret- 
ting along. Their first customer, as job printers, 
was a man from the country whom a good friend 
brought into their work-room. As all their cash 
had been laid out in procuring what was neces- 
sary for the office, they were very glad to take 
the fiye-shilling job which the stranger brought 
them. Franklin says that those shillino^s s^ave 
him more pleasure than " any crown' he ever 
receiyed afterwards ; and he felt such strong 
gratitude for the friend who had put this first 
piece of work in his hands, that he belieyes it 
had the effect eyer after to make him willing to 
aid young beginners. 

One day he was met by a c7'oaJcer. There are 
such men everywhere ; they infest every com- 
munity, and make it their chief business to throw 
wet blankets over whatever undertakings come 
to their ears. This person was named Samuel 
Mickle : he was an elderly man, and an utter 
stranger to Franklin ; but he took the liberty to 
stop him one day at his door, and ask him " if he 
was the young man who had lately opened a new 
printing-house." He said he was very sorry to 
find the report true, for the undertaking was 
great, and the cost of it would all be thrown 



IN BUSINESS. 85 

away. He likewise told young Franklin that 
Philadelphia was "a sinking place," the people 
were already "half bankrupts," and the new 
buildings going up were but deceitful promises 
of prosperity, and were certain in time to ruin 
them. The effect produced on the youthful 
printer's mind by this lugubrious kind of talk 
was to leave it in a half melancholy state ; in 
fact, he declared that if he had met with this 
man before embarking in business for himself, he 
never should have made the venture. 

But Franklin records as a fact worth laying up 
against this man, and all the other men of his 
class, that he continued to live in Philadelphia 
notwithstanding the decay into which the city 
was falling, and kept up his croaking as briskly 
as ever. He refused for a long time to buy a 
house there, because he was so sure the place was 
rapidly going to ruin ; and Franklin remarks that 
it gave him "pleasure" to see him at last obliged 
to give live times as much for a house as he 
would have had to do, had he bought when he 
first began croaking ! 

About this time, Franklin set in operation a 
club of young men, who were to meet for self- 
improvement, which club was named the Junto. 



84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

They met on Friday evenings. The rules re- 
quired that each member should in turn bring in 
a question to be discussed in open meeting, on 
any point of morals, politics, or natural philos- 
ophy; and once in three months he was to read 
before the body an essay of his own production, 
on any subject whatever. There was a President 
appointed by the club, and it was agreed that all 
debates and discussions should be carried on in 
a sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, and not 
merely from a vain desire for victory. If a mem- 
ber used improper language, or was hasty, or 
indulged in open contradiction of others, he was 
to be fined in a small sum of money. 

The members of this Junto were not altogether 
indifferent characters. It was not exactly a club 
to count among its members such men as Sir 
Joshua Eeynolds, Edmund Burke, Oliver Gold- 
smith, and Dr. Samuel Johnson, — but it was 
made immortal by at least one spirit within its 
little circle, and that one Benjamin Franklin. 
There w^as a copier of deeds among them, the 
inventor of Hadley's Quadrant, a professional 
surve^^or, a shoemaker, a joiner, a young gentle- 
man of some fortune who was given to punning^ 
and, finally, the clerk of a merchant, William 



IN BUSINESS. S5 

Coleman by name, who had, as Franklhi himself 
records it, ''the coolest, clearest head, the best 
heart, and the exactest morals" of any man he 
ever met with. 

This same merchant's clerk afterwards became 
a great merchant, and one of the judges of the 
province. He and Franklin continued fast friends 
for the term of forty years, for almost the whole 
of which time the club likewise continued ; and 
Franklin says it was ''the best school of phil- 
osophy, morality, and politics, that then existed 
in the province." In order to discuss the various 
topics with anything like justice, it of course 
became necessary for the members to read care- 
fully beforehand such works as treated of the 
matter under consideration ; and the rules re- 
quired such carefulness in speaking, and forbade 
with such strictness all indulgence in intemperate 
and improper language, that the young men soon 
found they w^ere receiving such real benefit from 
the weekly meetings as they had scarcely deemed 
possible. There was no temper lost between 
them, which only left so much more room and 
time for personal improvement. 

This same Club brought the new printing- 
house business. The several members of it made 



86 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

it a point to influence all tliey could in favor of 
tlie young printers. Through one they procured 
the printing of forty sheets of the new Quaker 
history ; Keimer performed the rest of the work, 
and Franklin said they took their part on such 
low terms as scarcely allowed a profit. They 
worked hard over the job, Franklin himself com- 
posing a sheet each day, and frequently not 
finishing his day's work till eleven o'clock at 
night. 

He Avas so eager to make his sheet a day, that 
one night, after having placed his " forms" on 
the ''imposing stone," he accidentally made ''pi" 
of two pages ; all of which he deliberately went 
to work and set in type again before he went to 
bed. By industry of this sort, closely followed 
up, the new house soon acquired reputation and 
earned the confidence of all who knew or heard 
of its partners. Although it was continually 
thrown out at the Merchants' Club that the new 
printing-house was sure to fail, there being two 
similar houses in town already, yet the young 
men held steadily on their way. One gentleman, 
a friend of theirs, predicted difierently, however : 
he said — "the industry of that Franklin is 
superior to anything of the kind I ever saw; I 



IN BUSINESS. 87 

see him at work when I go home from the chih, 
and he is at work again before his neighbors are 
out of bed." The remark was not without its 
effect in the young men's favor. 

Franklin confesses that it was this homely 
virtue of industry that brought the concern up, 
and afterwards kept it there. He wished his 
posterity to know and remember how much is 
due to the exercise of that single virtue. 

It was not long before it entered into the plans 
of Franklin to publish a newspaper in Philadel- 
phia, in connection with his job business. He 
had had some experience in that line in Boston, 
as the reader will remember; and he felt confi- 
dent of his ability to go forward with a plan 
which would add to his own personal influence as 
well as increase the profits of his establishment. 
An old fellow printer at Keimer's had purchased 
his time of his emploj^er, and came over to 
Franklin's ofiice to offer himself as a journeyman. 
As it happened, they had no work just then to 
give him; but Franklin told him in confidence 
that he should start a newspaper soon, and that 
he would probably have work for him then. 

The only newspaper printed in the city 
was by Bradford, and a wretched affair it was. 



88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Yet it paid liim a good profit, and Franklin 
reasoned that if an affair of that kind paid well, a 
better one ought to pay better; and he deter- 
mined to try the experiment. But Webb was 
leaky; he could not keep his important secret, 
but must needs tell it to Keimer. Upon the hint 
thus received, Keimer resolved to begin a new 
paper himself, before Franklin should get ready 
for his enterprise. He would thus have the field 
all to himself. Franklin was not a little cha- 
grined at the occurrence, and quite as much 
vexed; and in order to do all the damage pos- 
sible to Keimer's prospects, he sat down and 
wrote a number of pleasant pieces for Bradford's 
paper, — the very one he had determined to over- 
throw, — over the signature of Busy Body. 
These articles were kept up by him for several 
months, and attracted special attention. Every- 
thing relating to Keimer's paper, his proposals 
to the public not excepted, were ridiculed to the 
last letter. 

Keimer started his paper, however, according to 
his proposals ; but he had not gone on with it 
fully nine months, during which period he had 
not more than ninety subscribers at any one time, 
when he turned and off'ered the whole concern to 



IN BUSINESS. 89 

Franklin for a mere song. The latter had been all 
ready for the step for some little time, and of course 
fell in with his proposal without further delay. 
It became very profitable to him in a few years. 
His partner, Meredith, became worse than helpless 
in the establishment ; for in addition to being a 
wretched compositor and pressman he was seldom 
sober. A favorable opportunity for dissolving the 
business relations not long afterwards occurred. 

Franklin put his best care and talent into the 
columns of his newspaper; he believed, too, as 
any practical printer would, that an attractive me- 
chanical appearance made a great difference in 
favor of any paper ; therefore he took exceeding 
pains with the types and the printing. A dispute, 
since become historical, which was then going on 
between the Governor and the Massachusetts As- 
sembly, led him to make pointed remarks on the 
same from time to time, which drew still wider 
attention to his paper, and soon made the principal 
people his subscribers. When a few leading men 
began to take the paper, their example was followed 
very soon and very generally. Franklin sets down 
all his good luck at this critical period as the re- 
sult of " having learned a little to scribble." And, 
on the other hand, the man who could himself 

8* 



90 BENJAMIN PRANKLIN. 

"handle a pen" in conducting a newspaper, was 
thought twice as well of as if he could not. Hence 
he was encouraged in every manner. 

Bradford, his rival, had printed an address of 
the House to the Governor in such a careless and 
blundering manner, Franklin resolved to improve 
upon it and watch the effect. So he reprinted the 
whole in a style of elegance and with all attention 
to correctness, and sent a copy to each member of 
the House. The entire body saw the difference 
in the style of the work, and the friends of Frank- 
lin were thus enabled to command votes enough 
to make him and his partner public printers for 
the following year. 

Meredith's father, who had engaged to advance 
the money for the printing office, and who had 
advanced but one hundred pounds already, was 
unable to make the second payment of an hundred 
pounds, as expected. In consequence, the firm 
was sued for the amount ; bail was given ; but it 
was plain to Franklin that, when the case came 
to trial, judgment would be given against them, 
execution would follow, and every vestige of their 
industry and their hopes would vanish. In this 
dilemma he was waited upon by a couple of true 
friends, each ignorant of what the other had done, 



IN BUSINESS. 91 

who offered liini the help he so much needed in 
order to take the whole business on his own shoul- 
ders. They did not wish him to continue the 
connection w^ith Meredith, however, w^ho "had re- 
peatedly been seen drunk in the streets, and whose 
haunts were low ale-houses. 

The names of these two men who so generously 
offered him this timely assistance w^ere William 
Coleman and Robert Grace. He thanked each 
of them from his heart ; but he felt obliged to tell 
them that he was not at liberty to break up the 
partnership) so long as there remained any chance 
of Meredith's father keeping his engagement in 
the matter of the second payment. Yet if he 
should fail entirely to do so, then their proffered 
aid would be most gladly accepted. 

Kot long after, Franklin held a talk with his 
partner about the business, and asked him if he 
thought his father declined to advance more mo- 
ney on account of being dissatisfied with himself. 
The young man positively assured him that that 
was not the reason at all; "my father has been 
disappointed," said he, "and is really unable, and 
I am unwilling to distress him further." His 
partner likewise told him that he felt certain that 
he was unfit for the business, and ought to give 



92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

it up. He was Welsh ; many of his people were 
about to colonize and emigrate to IS'orth Carolina; 
and he felt inclined to leave with them and go 
upon th"e land again to work. He had been bred 
a farmer, and not a printer; land was veiy cheap 
where they talked of going, and he was certain to 
get at least a living there, if he did not do more. 
He also made Franklin a proposition to assume 
the debts of the firm, to pay back the hundred 
pounds the elder Meredith had advanced, clear off 
his personal debts, give him thirty pounds and a 
new saddle, — and the whole concern should be 
turned over to his hands. 

Franklin lost no time in acceding to this propo- 
sal. He had it duly drawn up in writing, signed, 
and sealed. Payments were made as proposed, 
and his partner left him for the distant province 
of ISTorth Carolina. He wrote back a couple of 
letters from that country the next year, filled with 
sensible and reliable accounts of the climate, soil, 
and productions, which Franklin published in the 
columns of his paper. 

Rather than seem partial to either of his two 
kind friends, he wisely accepted half of what each 
had offered him, and at once paid off the company 
debts, and went on with the business. He made 



IN BUSINESS. 93 

a public announcement in his paper that the part- 
nership was dissolved. 

A lively discussion concerning paper money 
sprang up at this time. There were but .£15,000 
of it in the province, and this was soon to be 
funded. One class of the people opposed the plan 
of increasing the amount in circulation, believing 
that it would become so plentiful as to grow too 
cheap, requiring a large amount to buy the same 
articles. This same question had come up for dis- 
cussion in the Junto, and Franklin had there ad- 
vocated an addition to the paper currency ; he said 
he was persuaded, from the small amount which 
was first struck off, in 1723, that it had increased 
trade, multiplied employments, and brought more 
population into the province ; he now saw all the 
old houses occupied, and many new ones going 
up; whereas, when he first strolled about the 
streets of Philadelphia, munching his roll, he 
noticed on many and many a house a bill reading 
— To he Let^ which led him to think the inhabit- 
ants might be deserting the city. 

He wrote and published a pamphlet on the sub- 
ject of paper money, entitled — "The Nature and 
Necessity of a Paper Currency.'' The mass of the 
people received it with favor, but the wealthy class 



94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

disliked it, as it swelled the cry for more paper 
money. But the production was not answered by 
any writer on their side, and the House passed a 
bill for printing more paper currency by a decided 
majority. Yery naturally, as Franklin had taken 
such an interest in the measure^ and had done so 
much toward creating a public opinion for it, the 
House voted him the profitable job of doing the 
printing. It was another advance in his fortunes, 
and he ascribed it all to his having qualified him- 
self early to express his views in writing. 

He also obtained the job of printing the same 
sort of money for Newcastle, through the inter- 
ventions of a friend ; and, in addition to that, the 
printing of the laws and votes of the same gov- 
ernment, which he continued to do as long as he 
followed the printing business. 

Besides the printing ofiice and the newspaper, 
he now opened a stationer's shop, in which he 
kept the most correct blanks that had ever made 
their appearance among the people. He likewise 
kept for sale paper, parchment, chapmen's books, 
and other things of the same character. He had 
so much work and business on his hands at this 
time, that he hired another hand at the case, be- 
sides taking in an apprentice. Under the im- 



IN BUSINESS. 95 

proved state of circumstances in which he found 
himself, he began to pay oiF his printing-house 
debt. 

He said that he took a great deal of pains not 
only to he frugal and industrious, but not to appear 
the contrary ; thus paying proper regard to the 
eyes and opinions of others. He dressed very 
plain, and never allowed himself to be seen at 
places of public amusement. He never went off 
jRshing or shooting. He sometimes allowed him- 
self the luxury of reading a hook^ but that did not 
occur too often, and caused no remark by others. 
To let people see that he was not above his busi- 
ness, he sometimes wheeled home the paper he 
bought at the store on a wheelbarrow. Seeing 
what his character was, merchants went out of 
their way to solicit his trade, offering to sell him 
an;y*fching he needed in the line of his business on 
most accommodating terms. He prospered rap- 
idly ; while his rival, Keimer, saw his business and 
his credit fast melting away, and was finally forced 
to sell his printing-house in order to satisfy his 
creditors. The man set sail for Barbadoes, where 
he lived very poor. 

An apprentice of Keimer's, whom Franklin had 
himself instructed when he worked in the office 



96 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of tlie former, bought his printing materials and 
set lip in opposition to Franklin, and the latter 
had some fears lest he would find in him a power- 
ful rival ; out of prudence, therefore, he proposed 
a partnership with him ; but it was rejected in a 
very scornful way, as he was above the reach of 
such working mechanics as young Franklin. The 
latter had reason, however, to be grateful for the 
refusal ; for the fellow was vain and conceited, 
dressed above his situation, did not follow his busi- 
ness, lived showily, ran in debt, and wasted a 
great deal of time in amusements. His business 
very soon ran out, and he followed his old master 
out to Barbadoes, where the apprentice had the 
satisfaction of hiring his former employer as a 
journeyman. 

Bradford was now the only other printer in 
Philadelphia. But he was become rich in his 
business, and did not need to push rivalry with a 
young man to the limit to which other men would. 
He was the post-master, however, and as he pos- 
sessed many facilities for distributing his newspa- 
per which Franklin did not, he obtained more ad- 
vertisements on the strength of it. In order to 
get his paper sent by the post, Franklin was forced 
to bribe the riders, \vho carried them without 



IN BUSINESS. 97 



Bradford's knowledge; the latter having expressly 
forbidden them to take any copies of the rival 
paper. Franklin has put it on record, to be re- 
membered by all honorable men forever, that when 
he afterwards came to occupy Bradford's position 
as post-master, he took special care not to imitate 
so very mean a practice. 

Godfrey and his family had occupied a part of 
his house all this time, and Franklin had boarded 
with them. One side of the shop was occupied 
by Godfrey for his avocation — that of a glazier. 
Mrs. Godfrey had a relative, who had a daughter ; 
and the kind woman, seeing that the young 
printer was prospering so well, and feeling more 
or less interested in his personal welfare, set her 
wits to work making a match. She brought 
them together in her apartm-ents as often as pos- 
sible, and he admits that, on his own side, a serious 
courtship actually ensued. The girl's father and 
mother, too, not to be behindhand, took pains to 
ask him to their house to tea, from time to time, 
and adroitly left them in one another's company 
BO often that he found it soon became necessary 
to explain. Here the ready Mrs. Godfrey came 
in again with her diplomacy. She expected to 

see the fruits of her tact and skill forthwith. 
9 



98 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

On his part, rranklin wanted lier to make the 
parents of the girl understand that, if he married 
her, he should expect with her, by way of dowry, 
as much money as would suffice to pay off the re- 
maining debts of his printing establishment, — 
perhaps a hundred pounds. Word was brought 
back by her that they had no such sum to spare. 
He suggested that they mortgage their house for 
the purpose in the loan office. They retorted that 
they did not approve the match ; because, having 
made inquiry of Bradford (his rival), he had told 
them the printing business was very risky in the 
province, and that two men had but recently been 
compelled to give it up — Keimer and his appren- 
tice. Bradford told them, too, that types soon 
wore out, and would have to be replaced at the 
same expense as at first. Franklin was therefore 
forbidden the house, and his lady-love was duly 
shut up where he could not see her. He doubted 
if the parents really meant to carry out this reso- 
lution, or if it were not part of a plan to draw him 
into marrying their daughter stealthily, or against 
their will. 

He suspected this plan just strongly enough to 
suffer his feelings to be touched with resentment, 
and that concluded his attentions in that quarter. 



IN BUSINESS. 99 

Mrs. Godfrey aftenvards reported to him that the 
father and mother felt better inclined toward him, 
and would have been glad to bring about an ar- 
rangement; but he held out against any such 
thing, and at length felt compelled to tell her 
plainly that he would have nothing more to do 
with the family. She resented it as a personal 
matter; and the result was, the Godfreys soon 
formed a resolution to leave his premises. This 
left him quite alone in the house; and he made 
up his mind to take no more inmates. 

It was a fortunate occurrence for him, however, 
and it would seem as if it could have taken place 
at no more fit period in his whole career. By 
being thus left alone, and feeling still more so in 
consequence of being suddenly denied that female 
society to which he was naturally drawn, his atten- 
tion was attracted to marriage in earnest. He 
says he "looked around" him, and "made over- 
tures of acquaintance in other places;" but as it 
was the prevailing opinion that a printer's busi- 
ness was but a poor one at best, he saw pretty 
clearly that he could not obtain a wife with money, 
unless he would consent to take up with just such 
an one as he did not want. 

As it fell out, too, this time in his favor again, 



100 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

a friendly acquaintance was about this time renewed 
between himself and the Read family, who had 
all of them kept alive a kind regard for Franklin 
since he first went to their house to lodge. They 
now called him in quite often to consult in their 
private matters, and he proved serviceable to them. 
Of course he was obliged to come in contact with 
Miss Read, — who, the reader will remember, had 
married since Franklin broke off the acquaintance 
while in London, and afterwards been deserted 
by her husband. She appeared sad and shy to 
him, speaking but little, and seeming to dislike 
company. 

His pity was awakened for her at once. He 
accused himself with being the author of all her 
mistakes and sorrows, from having neglected her 
so cruelly while absent in London ; although the 
mother of the young woman was by no means of 
the same opinion, charging the fault upon hei^elf 
for not consenting to their marriage before he went 
to London, as he had desired. Besides, it was 
through her means that the other, and worthless, 
match was brought about in Franklin's absence. 
The affection was speedily revived between them, 
and marriage was very naturally thought of by 
both. 



IN BUSINESS. 101 

But liere an ugly obstacle interposed. It was, 
to be sure, believed that lier husband had a wife 
living in England, which would of course render 
the former marriage invalid; but the difficulty 
was, to prove it. There was a story of his death, 
too ; but that could not be proved, either, and to 
sum up with, he had left many debts behind, 
which the next husband would legally be called on 
to pay. 

Franklin says he got bravely over all these diffi- 
culties, however, and at last married her. The 
wedding day was on the 1st of September, 1730, 
and he was a little more than twenty-four and a 
half years old. It so happened that he was never 
troubled with any of those inconveniences from 
which he had feared, and life began pleasantly 
again with them both. 

At that time, there was not a good bookstore, 
or bookseller's shop, as they then styled them, to 
the south of Boston. The printers in New York 
and Philadelphia were stationers, but they sold 
nothing more than *' paper, almanacs, ballads, and 
a few common school-books." Whoever wanted 
books, must needs send out to England and im- 
port them. We can now hardly imagine the state 

of things in this country which existed then. 
9* 



102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The members of the Junto each had a few 
books. They had left the alehouse where they 
held their first meetings, and hired a room else- 
where. Franklin proposed that they should club 
their books together, and thus make a respectable 
library, placing them in the club-room. There 
each member could consult all the books, or carry 
away for the time such as he would like to read 
at home. The proposal was at once accepted by 
the rest as a sensible one, and marked improve- 
ment grew out of it. 

The success of this new plan of his led him to 
attempt larger things. Though the members of 
the club took their books back home after the ex- 
piration of a twelvemonth, owing to the trouble 
found in taking the proper care of them and keep- 
ing them safelj^ together, the experience gained 
by the working of the new plan encouraged Frank- 
lin to set on foot a subscription for a large Public 
Library, to be held for the common benefit of the 
subscribers to the fund. 

He engaged Mr. Charles Brockden, a well-known 
scrivener and conveyancer of Philadelphia, to 
draw up articles of agreement to be subscribed ; 
according to which, every subscriber was to pay a 
certain sum down for the first purchase of the 



IN BUSINESS. 103 

books, and an annual amount to buy more with. 
Readers were a scanty part of society in Philadel- 
phia at that time ; with all his efforts, Franklin 
could raise but fifty persons, and they chiefly 
young tradesmen, who were willing to pay down 
forty shillings apiece, besides an assessment of ten 
dollars per annum. 

But the undertaking was launched with this 
amount, and faith and industry supplied all defi- 
ciencies. They imported their books, and on a 
given day each week the library was opened to 
subscribers. The latter gave written notes to pay 
double the value of the books they took out, un- 
less duly returned. 

By and by, similar associations sprang up else- 
where, — not only in other towns, but in the other 
provinces. It became fashionable to read books ; 
and fashion often works more effectually than 
sense or reason. The people generally became 
better acquainted with books. Those who had 
volumes of their own to contribute, generously 
gave them to the library ; so that it became more 
and more respectable for the number of its vol- 
umes. The result of the increased reading of the 
citizens of Philadelphia soon made itself visible; 
people from other places remarked that they ap- 



104 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

peared better instructed and more intelligent tliaii 
men of the same class in other communities. 

Franklin never forgot one remark made by Mr. 
Brockden, when the subscribers to the enterprise 
were about to sign their names to the articles 
drafted by him. These articles were to be bind- 
ing on all of them for the term of fifty years. Said 
Mr. Brockden — "You are young men; but it is 
scarcely probable that any of you will live to see 
the expiration of the term fixed in the instru- 
ment." Many of them did live over the term of 
time alluded to, although their compan}^ changed 
the character of its organization by securing a 
regular charter, which gave it corporate form and 
l^al existence. 

One little reflection, put forth by Franklin him- 
self, is at this point worth heeding by young per- 
sons. He observed that a good plan was often 
injured by its author's going about personally and 
thrusting it on the attention of others, when by 
keeping himself a little more out of sight it would 
be sure of speedy success. Therefore he laid it 
down as a rule for himself, at this period of his 
life, to operate his schemes as much as possible 
through others, instead of exhibiting himself; 



IN BUSINESS. 105 

and he found that it worked to a charm. He left 
his testimony that the present sacrifice of vanity 
would always be well repaid by the substantial 
results that are certain to follow. 



106 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER Y. 



GETTING ALONG. 



1^ the new library he found not only a ready 
solace from the cares and labors of his busi- 
ness, but likewise a means of improvement 
of which he was prompt to avail himself. He re- 
solved now to pursue a fixed course of reading 
and stud}^, for w^hich he set apart at least one or 
two hours each day. In the course of time, this 
habit would not fail to produce its peculiar effect 
on his mind and character. 

Here and now did Benjamin Franklin, while he 
was daily hard at work at his printing case and 
printing press, industriously build upon the foun- 
dations so hastily laid while he was an apprentice 
in Boston. He says he did what he could to re- 
pair the loss of the learned education his father 
had once intended for him. All the recreation he 
allowed himself was reading. He wasted no time 
in games, frolics, or taverns; and he continued 



GETTING ALONG. 107 

working at his trade with all the energy he had 
at command. 

In fact, it was a rather hard row he had to hoe, 
at best ; he was in debt for his printing office ; he 
had a young family ; there were two business ri- 
vals who had started before him in Philadelphia ; 
and there was need that every hour should be 
profitably employed. But he felt much encour- 
aged, too, at finding that his business was growing 
better, and his circumstances easier in conse- 
quence. He continued just as frugal as ever, 
keeping constantly in mind that proverb of Solo- 
mon which his father had often repeated to him 
while a boy, — ^' Seest thou a man diligent in his 
calling? He shall stand before Kings; he shall 
not stand before mean men." 

Little thought he, while revolving this same 
proverb in his mind, that it would be by reason 
of his diligence^ as well as of his other virtues, that 
he would in truth "stand before Kings." But 
from the time when he began to see that his pros- 
perity w^as the result of his diligence, he had faith 
to believe that industry was at the bottom of all 
success in life. He admits that he did not expect 
to ."stand before Kings," although he did after- 
wards have the honor to stand before five, and to 



108 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

sit down to eat with one, — the King of Denmark. 
A much more enviable distinction in that day 
than in this ; yet it is well worth noticing on ac- 
count of the literal fulfillment, in his case, of the 
proverb. 

He speaks himself of his own and his wife's 
thrift at this time, to show the direct results of 
frugality. He always ,consulted his wife in his 
undertakings, obeying another proverb, but an 
old English one, that says, — "He that would 
thrive, must ask his wife." He sets it down in 
his autobiography as a piece of singular fortune, 
that he had a wife who was just as saving and 
industrious as himself. She took hold with all 
possible cheerfulness, and helped him in his busi- 
ness ; folding and stitching pamphlets, buying old 
linen rags (that was before the days of cotton) 
for the papermakers, and tending shop just as he 
would have done himself. 

To show how prudently they lived, — they kept 
no servants about them to be idle; their table 
was set with none but plain and simple food ; and 
their furniture was as cheap as possible. For a 
long while, he ate for his breakfast nothing more 
than bread and milk, using no tea; and this 
frugal mea^ he took from an earthen porringer 



GETTIXa ALONG. 109 

whicli cost him only two pennies, with a pewter 
spoon ! This was the style in which a philoso- 
pher set up housekeeping w^ith his wife, — a man 
who was yet to represent his country abroad, and 
to ''stand before kings." 

He soon after had occasion, however, to lament 
the ill effects of prosperity, for it tempted luxury 
to come into his dwelling. He says that he was 
greatly surprised, one morning, on being called to 
breakfast, to find that a china howl was sgt before 
him, with a silver spoon in it. He knCAV nothing 
of it beforehand, his faithful wife being resolved 
to greet him with a new pleasuije. He states 
that this present cost her *' the enormous sum of 
three and twenty shillings." The only excuse 
she plead for such an act of extravagance was, 
that she thought her husband was as deserving 
of a china bowl and silver spoon as any of his 
neighbors. This was the first piece of china and 
the first piece of plate introduced into his family. 
They had a great deal of it afterwards. 

His religious views and feelings now claimed 

a large share of his attention. He felt it to be 

necessary to take a serious review of his life and 

character, and endeavor to shape his conduct so 

as to challenge the closest scrutiny of his own 
10 



110 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

conscience, and merit tlie approbation of his 
Maker. Though he had been educated in the 
tenets of the Presbyterians, he thought some of 
their points of faith unintelligible, and others 
doubtful ; and he therefore declined to attend on 
public worship, making of Sunday what he called 
his "studying day." He confesses that he was 
never without religious principles. He did not, 
for example, question the existence of God; or 
that H^ created and governs the world ; or that 
the most acceptable service of God was the doing 
good to man ; or that the soul is immortal ; or 
that all crime will be punished, and all virtue 
will be rewarded, either here or hereafter. 

These points he believed to be the very essen- 
tials of religion ; and he respected all creeds, in 
proportion to the infusion which they had of 
these very principles. And hence, respecting all 
creeds, and not being unwilling to believe that 
" even the worst had some good effects," he care- 
fully avoided all discourse that might incline a 
person to think less of his own religion. Besides 
this example of his toleration, he contributed 
something to every sect that had it in mind to 
erect a new place of public worship, never refus- 
ing their solicitations. And during the whole 



GETTINCx ALONG. Ill 

time that he declined attending church, he still 
paid in his annual subscription to the only Pres- 
byterian minister or meeting they had in Phila- 
delphia. 

The minister used to come and visit Franklin, 
and admonish him of his duty to attend on his 
preaching, and he admits that h6 was prevailed 
to do so, from time to time : once for five Sun- 
days together. He says he would have gx)iie to 
hear him preach regularly, but for the fact tha-t 
he preached discourses that were filled with po- 
lemic arguments, or matters of creed, which to his 
mind seemed "dry, uninteresting, and unedify- 
ing." He thought such sermons calculated to 
make good Presbyterians, rather than good citi- 
zens. And therefore he stayed away, and pursued 
his Sunday course of studies. 

But Franklin speaks of one sermon in particu- 
lar, which he thought ought certainly to prove a 
test of the value of his preaching, so far as he was 
to be benefited. The text was from Philippians, 
reading thus: — "Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of 
good report, if there be any virtue or any praise, 
think on these things." Franklin thought that, 
from a text of this sort, the preacher could not 



112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

easily go wide of a practical discourse on morals 
and morality. Pii stead of that, he proceeded to 
lay down five points, as follows : 1st. Keeping 
holy the Sabbath day. 2d. Being diligent in 
reading the holy Scriptures. 3d. Attending duly 
the public worship. 4th. Partaking of the Sacra- 
ment. 5th. Paying a due respect to God's minis- 
ters. Franklin thought himself that all these 
might be good things, but they were not the kind 
of good things to be expected from that text; 
and, despairing of getting what he craved fi*om 
any other text if not from that, he confesses that 
he was " disgusted, and attended his preaching 
no more." 

His mind, however, was profoundly exercised 
about moral improvement. lie aimed to have 
his head and heart grow in wisdom and purity 
together. It seems that, a few years before, he 
had sat down and composed for his own private 
use a form of prayer, or liturgy, which he had 
entitled — "Articles of Belief and Acts of Reli- 
gion;" and he went back to the regular and con- 
scientious use of this little composition, declining 
to attend upon public worship any more. He 
does not attempt to excuse his conduct in this 
respect, leaving results to speak for him. 



GETTING ALONG. 113 

Along with the discipline obtained by this 
course, he was led to conceive a project of 
actually reaching a state of "moral perfection ;" a 
bold enterprise for a young man, but one in 
which a trial would lead him to at least a better 
understanding of himself than he ever possessed 
before. He says that he wished " to live without 
committing any fault at any time, and to conquer 
all that either natural inclination, custom, or com- 
pany might lead him into." He thought, that, 
since he knew what was right and what was 
wrong, there would be no difficulty in always 
doing the one and avoiding the other. But he 
little understood the character or extent of the 
task he had undertaken. He could no more than 
give his attention to one fault, in order to correct 
and remove it, when he found that he had com- 
mitted a fault in another direction ! To use his 
own phrase concerning the matter, — ''habit took 
the advantage of inattention, and inclination was 
sometimes too strong for reason." 

His many slips had the effect, however, to open 
his eyes to what he would not so soon have dis- 
covered in any other way ; he became wise in a 
direction where he might long have been in dark- 
ness, but for this faulty experiment: and he at 
10* 



11-4 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

last came to the conclusion that no person could 
become completely virtuous from the conviction 
that it was for his interest to become so, and that 
all opposite habits must be broken, and really 
good ones established in their places, before one 
can rely on a steady rectitude of conduct. 

In order to bring about, in his own case, the 
establishment of thoroughly good habits in place 
of the contrary, he resorted to a method original 
with himself, extremely ingenious while likewise 
simple, and one which deserves the closest exam- 
ination, if not the most conscientious imitation, 
of all young men of like desires and aspirations. 
He sat down and made a catalogue of all the lead- 
ins: virtues he had ever met with in the course 
of his reading, enumerating thirteen in all, and 
affixing to each a short precept which illustrated 
its meaning. They are all given here, in their 
order, for the sake of more clearly showing the 
nature and extent of the task which he had 
resolutely set before him : 

1. Temperance. — Eat not to dulness ; drink 
iuot to elevation. 

2. Silence. — Speak not but what may benefit 
others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 



GETTING ALONG. 115 

3. Order.— -Let all things have their places ; 
let each part of your business have its time. 

4. Resolution. — Resolve to perform what you 
ought ; perform without fail what you resolve. 

5. Frugality. — Make no expense but to do 
good to others or yourself; that is, waste no- 
thing. 

6. Industry. — Lose no time; be always em- 
ployed in something useful ; cut off all unneces- 
sary actions. 

7. Sincerity.— Use no hurtful deceit; think 
innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak 
accordingly. 

8. Justice. — Wrong none by doing injuries, or 
omitting the benefits that are your duty. 

9. Moderation. — Avoid extremes; forbear re- 
senting injuries so much as you think they 
deserve. 

10. Cleanliness. — Tolerate no uncleanliness in 
body, clothes, or habitation. 

11. Tranquillity.— Be not disturbed at trifles, 
or at accidents common or unavoidable. 

12. Chastity. — — — . 

13. Humility.— Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 

His object was to form habits, or, as he ex- 



IIG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

presses it, ''to acquire habitudes," of virtue; and 
he conceived a plan by which he thought he could 
make more headway than by any other. 

He determined to rivet his attention on one of 
these virtues at a time, rather than attempt to com- 
pass them all at once, and thus lose the impres- 
sion of all. After mastering one of them, he 
would go on to another ; and thus pass through 
the whole catalogue. And he reasoned again, 
that his conscientious practice of one virtue 
would make the practice of the following ones 
all the easier, and chiefly because he would 
approach them with habits of virtue already 
formed. 

He naturally began with the virtue of Temper- 
ance, he says, because "it tends to procure that 
coolness and clearness of head which is so neces- 
sary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, 
and a guard maintained against the unremitting 
attraction of ancient habits and the force of per- 
petual temptations." After Temperance should 
be duly attended to. Silence would follow more 
easily ; and as he wished to gain knowledge 
while he likewise improved in virtue, and re- 
membered that it was obtained rather through 
the ear than by means of the tongue, and also 



GETTING ALONG. 117 

desired to conquer a faulty habit of " prattling^ 
punning, and jesting," — lie gave the second place 
on his list to Silence. 

Then followed Order; by obeying this rule 
strictly, he was left with time to attend both to 
his own improvement and to his studies. 'Next, 
Hesolution ; this strengthened the previous habits, 
and held him firmly on the course of acquiring 
those which were to follow. Frugality and Indus- 
try would help to extricate him from the remain- 
der of his debt, and, by putting him on the road 
to independence, would make Sincerity, Justice, 
and the rest of the virtues comparatively easy to 
acquire. 

In order to carry out his plan with regularity, — 
which alone would make it of much worth to 
him, — he felt that a daily examination into his 
heart and conduct would be necessary ; and to fa- 
cilitate this practice to the utmost, he made a lit- 
tle Book, in which he allotted a whole page to 
each one of the virtues. Each page was ruled 
with red ink so as to make seven columns, — a col- 
umn for every day in the week; and he marked 
each column at the top with a letter for the day. 
Then he ruled these columns across with thirteen 
more red lines, placing at the commencement of 



118 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

each line, on the extreme left, the letter signifying 
one of the virtues, in its clue order. And, finally, 
to carry out his plan, following along on the Vir- 
tue line he could make a little black spot under 
each day of the week, as lettered in the column, 
for every trespass of which he might find himself 
guilty against that particular virtue on that par- 
ticular day. 

This plan enabled him to give a week's atten- 
tion to every one of the virtues in its turn ; and 
he would go through with his catalogue every 
three months (thirteen weeks), or four times in 
the course of a year. For example, — his first 
week's exercise was to keep clear of sinning 
against the virtue of Temperance ; and the next 
week's, against Silence ; the next against Order ; 
and so on to the end. In giving all his attention 
the first week to Temperance, and trying to avoid 
all errors against that virtue, he left the other vir- 
tues to take their chance, although he was strict 
to mark down every night the remembered faults 
of the day. If, too, he could keep his Temper- 
ance line clear of spots for the first week, he felt 
so much strengthened in that virtue as to extend 
his attention to the next virtue at the same time ; 
and for the next week he would strive to keep 



GETTING ALONG. 119 

both lines free from blemishes. Franklin compares 
his labor over his morals to the work in a garden ; 
the man having a garden to clear does not try to 
get the weeds all out of the soil at once, but works 
on one of the beds at a time, and, having got this 
clean, goes on to the second. And he hoped to 
persevere with his se]f-im2:>rovement until he could 
successively clear his lines of all their spots, so 
that, after going through a number of courses, he 
should be happy beyond expression in running his 
eyes over a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' 
daily search and inquiry. 

lie prefixed three Mottoes to his little Book, — 
the first from Addison, the second from Cicero, 
and the third from the Proverbs of Solomon. 
That from Addison was taken from his play called 
' Cato,' and read thus : 

" Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, 
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud 
Through all her works,) — lie must delight in virtue : 
And that which he delights in must be happy. '^ 

The motto from Cicero read, — 

"■ vit^e Philosophia dux ! virtutum indagatrix expul- 
trixque vitiorum ! Unus dies, bene et ex prasceptis tuis actus, 
peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus." 



120 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

That from the Proverbs read in this way : — 

*' Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand 
riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and 
all her paths are peace." 

In addition to these significant mottoes, he also 
prefixed to his examination tables the following 
little prayer, the product of his own pen : — 

"0, powerful Goodness ! bountiful Father ! merciful Guide ! 
Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest inter- 
est. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom 
dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children, as the 
only return in my power for thy continual favors to me." 

There was likewise a little prayer which he ex- 
tracted from the poet Thomson, and often used in 
addition to the other. 

In order to make the very most of his time and 
opportunities, he knew that Order required of him 
to put every part of his business in its proper 
place and hour; and upon one page of his little 
book he drew up a scheme, or plan, for occupying 
the twenty-four hours of any natural day. He 
divided the day into several parts, thus : — from 5 
to 8 in the morning, he set down this rule for 
himself, — '^ Kise, wash, and address Powerful Gfood- 
ness ! Contrive day's business, and take the reso- 
lution of the day; prosecute the present study, 
and breakfast." From 8 to 12,—" Work." From 



GETTING ALONG. 121 

12 to 2, — "Eead, or look over my accounts, and 
dine." From 2 to 6,— "Work." From 6 to 10, 
— "Put things in their places. Supper. Music 
or diversion, or conversation. Examination of 
the day." From 10 to 5,—" Sleep." Each morn- 
ing he asked himself the question, — "What 
good shall I do to-day ?" — and each evening, — 
" What good have I done to-day ?" 

For a long time he pursued this rigid course of 
life and conduct, saving every hour of his time, 
and undergoing a daily scrutiny at his own hands 
which few young men, even of those resolutely 
bent on self-culture, would have had the courage 
and patience to carry out. It was nothing strange 
that his little book soon began to remind him how 
speckled with faults he was. He was obliged to 
scratch out the marks on his pages in order to use 
his book over again for a new course ; and, in the 
process, he made holes in the paper. To obviate 
the necessity of ruling new pages, he used tablets, 
from whose surface the pencil marks could be 
readily rubbed out with a wet sponge. 

This exercise he kept up for some time, till, at 

length, instead of going through four courses of 

self-discipline a year, he went through but one. 

After that, but one course in several years. And 
11 



122 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

finally, he omitted tliem altogether, his travelling 
and voyaging and foreign business preventing 
such regularity as was necessary to make the thing 
effective. Still, he always carried his little book 
about with him, as a reminder of what it was pos- 
sible for him to attain to. The virtue of Order 
gave him more trouble than any other ; it came 
the harder for him to practice the habits of this 
virtue, from the fact that he was not born with a 
tendency that way. [N'or was he more fortunate 
with the virtue of Method ; he had hitherto 
trusted to his excellent memory, and with the help 
of that, managed to make things go off well 
enough ; but when he came to setting down to a 
reofular siesre before so formidable a virtue, striv- 
ing to*- run his parallels closer and closer all the 
while, he found it cost him so much trouble that 
he fain would have given it over' in despair : he 
complained of making but slow progress, if any, 
and of such frequent backslidings, too, that he was 
like to rest content with a faulty character in at 
least that regard. 

On reviewing his efforts, from time to time, es- 
pecially when he chanced to fall into a weary 
mood, he would be strongly tempted to relax 
them, and to let his more pardonable faults go ; 



GETTING ALONG. 123 

arguing to himself that nobody liked a perfect 
character, even if one were within the reach of 
man, and that a well-meaning person ought to let 
just a few faults remain, if only to keep his 
friends in countenance. So hard a matter is it to 
live strictly up to the law of perfection, for so 
much as the term of a single day. 

On the subject of Order, he pronounced himself 
beyond the reach of the arm of discipline. He 
had little or no hope for himself on that score. 
When he had grown old, he was made aware of 
his sad deficiency in this respect, as his memory 
was not at hand to make up for it ; but in regard 
to the other virtues of his list, he left his emphatic 
testimony that, though he fell far short of the per- 
fection at which he aimed, he nevertheless was 
made " a better and a happier man" by attempting 
it than if he had not tried at all ; which reminded 
him that those who strove to make their hand- 
writing perfect by imitating the engraved copies, 
though they never made as perfect copies as the 
originals, still came nearer to the excellence of the 
standard than if they had never made any attempt 
to reach it, and greatly improved their hand by 
the means. 

Franklin placed it on record, in his seventy- 



124 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ninth year, that to this " artifice"— as he termed 
his self-discipline with the aid of his little book, — 
he owed, under God's blessing, the constant fe- 
licity of his life. To Temperance he declared 
that he owed his good health and what was left 
him of a good constitution ; to Industry and Fru- 
gality, the comfortable circumstances in which he 
early found himself, as well as the reputation 
which he enjoyed in the world; and to Sincerity 
and Justice the confidence which his countrymen 
reposed in him and the many honorable employ- 
ments they entrusted to him; while to the whole 
body, or mass, of these virtues, feeble as was his 
hold on them at the best, he ascribed that even 
temper and cheerful habit in conversation which 
ever attracted to him the company of the young. 

In pursuing his course of moral culture, while 
he strove to be truly religious, he avoided all the 
creeds of his time ; and the reason he gave was 
simply this, — that " being fully persuaded of the 
utility and excellency of his (my) method, and 
that it might be serviceable to people in all reli- 
gions, and intending some time to publish it, he 
(I) would not have any thing in it that should 
prejudice any one, of any sect, against it." 

He did purpose to write a little book on these 

# 



GETTING ALONG. 125 

several virtues, showing the advantages of posses- 
smg and the mischiefs of being without them, to 
be styled " The Art of Virtue ;" and he thought 
it would have accomplished vastly more good than 
mere exhortation, since it indicated the means and 
manner of obtaining virtue, — but he never found 
the right opportunity to write and publish his 
commentary. The many hints he had jotted down 
to make use of, were laid away till his old age ; 
his close occupation in early life and his constant 
public employment later in life preventing his car-, 
rying out his plan. But the central idea he pro- 
posed to treat of in his little commentary, would 
have been this, as stated in his own language ; — 
'^that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are 
forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.''' 
And he would have proceeded to reason that it 
was, therefore, every one's interest to be virtuous, 
who wished to be happy even in this world. He 
would have further labored to convince young 
persons " that no qualities are so likely to make 
a poor man's fortune as those of probity and 
integrity." 

There were but twelve Virtues set down in his 
catalogue, at first ; but being one day informed by 
a Quaker friend that people generally thought him 
11* 



126 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

proud, and even insolent and overbearing when 
conducting an argument, he formed a resolution 
to try and cure himself of this vice if it could pos- 
sibly be done ; so he added Humility to his list, 
and appended the broadest possible meaning and 
signification to the word. By recurring to his list 
of virtues, it will be seen that Humility stands 
last on the list, — added in consequence of the 
frank suggestion of his Quaker friend. 

To carry out his resolution to keep down every 
appearance of undue pride, he made a rule never 
to be too strong in making his own assertions, or 
to venture upon openly contradicting others. Even 
in the usual discussions in the Junto, he forbore 
to use language that implied a fixed opinion, dis- 
carding from his phrases such positive words as 
"certainly" and "undoubtedly," and employing 
in their place such words as "I conceive", "I ap- 
prehend," and "I imagine," or "It so appears to 
me at present." 

When he wished to correct in another what he 
felt certain to be an error, instead of going at him 
with a flat contradiction he began by remarking 
that, under certain circumstances perhaps his 
opinion would be right, but in the present case 
there appeared to Jdm to be some difference, — and 



GETTING ALONG. 127 

SO on. By practising this style of speecli for a time, 
he discovered that it began to have a marked influ- 
ence over his manners, and that he could indulge 
quite freely in conversation with others, on every 
variety of topic, with a great deal of positive 
pleasure. This very modesty made room for his 
opinions, whereas a dogmatic and dictatorial style 
of speaking would have debarred him from a 
hearing at once. By his conciliatory manner, too, 
he succeeded in winning over to his views many 
a person who would otherwise have stood out and 
combated both himself and them. It was but 
another illustration of the old fable of the Sun 
and the North AYind, experimenting on the trav- 
eller in his cloak. 

For more than fifty years, beginning with his 
thirtieth "year, he records that no one had heard a 
dogmatical expression escape him. He ascribed 
it to this habit, next perhaps to that of integrity, 
that he obtained an influence with his fellow- 
citizens at so early a day : he was a member of 
the public councils, and, though a bad speaker 
and halting in his language, he rarely failed to 
carry his point. 

And this leads him to speak of pride ; of which 
lie says with marked emphasis — "Disguise it, 



128 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

struggle witli it, stifle it, mortify it as much as 
one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now 
and then peep out and show itself." He never 
dared think he had himself overcome it, for 
then he would only have been proud of his 
Jiumility, 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 129 



CHAPTEE YI. 

BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 

HIS continual reading was not without its 
results, for he read with an object, and not 
in a desultory manner. He jotted down 
such thoughts as struck him on the subject of 
History, and they are preserved. His reflections 
on one topic, in particular, led him to construct a 
creed for his own use, which is thus expressed in 
few words : — 

" That there is one God, who made all things. 

'' That He governs the world b}^ his providence. 

" That He ought to be worshipped by adora- 
tion, prayer, and thanksgiving. 

^'But the most acceptable service to God, is 
doing good to man. 

" That the soul is immortal. 

" And that God will certainly reward virtue and 
punish vice, either here or hereafter." 

He would have the sect founded on the above 



130 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

creed sjoread at first among young men, and single 
men ; each person wlio was initiated into the same 
should not only subscribe to the creed, but should 
also have gone faithfully through the thirteen 
weeks' examination and practice, according to the 
schedule described in the previous chapter ; the so- 
ciety was to be kept secret for a while, and its seve- 
ral members should look around their young men 
friends to find those to whom it would be perfectly 
safe and proper to communicate the scheme. They 
were to style themselves "The Society of the Free 
and Easy;" free from vice by the practice of the 
virtues, and, by the practice of industry and fru- 
gality free from debt, which puts one under con- 
straint, and makes him a sort of slave to his 
creditors. 

Franklin did not make very much headway with 
his new society, on account of the strict attention 
he was forced to pay at this time to his business ; 
and the number of his public employments after- 
ward made it impossible for him to take up the 
scheme — which he always believed an excellent 
one — and carry it forward to a wide and successful 
operation. 

He published, in the year 1732, a little work 
which would have given him undying fame among 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 131 

his countrymen, had he written and compiled no- 
thing else ; and that was his Almanac, known as 
'■^ Pool" Richard.'' It was at first published under 
the assumed name of Richard Samidejs ; but as it 
was repeated year b}^ year, it finally received the 
name of " Poor Eichard's Almanac," and had a 
life, all together, of about a quarter of a century. 
His plan was, in making it up, to entertain people 
while he instructed them ; and he brought his 
shrewd wisdom and irresistible mother-wit to bear 
upon his project with wonderful success. "Poor 
Eichard" came to be in such demand that he sold 
every year as many as ten thousand copies, and 
reaped a generous profit from his labor. It was 
one of those productions which fitted exactly into 
the wants of the times, and therefore became at 
once popular. 

Seeing how eagerly it was read, and that there 
was no locality within reach to which it did not 
penetrate, as a welcome friend, he conceived the 
idea of engrafting upon it, as a mere Almanac, a 
body of homely and quaint sentiments and mot- 
toes, filled with the meat of meaning, which could 
not so easily be found by the common people any- 
where else. It became, therefore, a sort of library 
of wisdom, — a compendium of common sense, — 



132 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

a storeliouse of wise and liomelj proverbs, — to 
which everybody could go, and freely help him- 
self to such as he wanted. As he described the 
contents himself, he says — "I filled all the little 
spaces that occurred between the remarkable days 
in the calendar with proverbial sentences^ chiefly 
by such as inculcated industry and frugality as the 
means of procuring wealth and thereby securing 
virtue ; it being more difficult for a man in want 
to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those 
proverbs, it is hard for an empy mck to stand up- 
right.' ^ 

It is not to be thought, however, that the prov- 
erbs uttered each year by '^Poor Richard" were 
the coin of Franklin's brain ; they contained, on 
the contrary, the wisdom of many ages and many 
nations. Franklin assembled them into a con- 
nected discourse, which he prefixed to the Alma- 
nac of 1757, as a wise and shrewd old man's har- 
angue to the people gathered at an auction ; and 
by thus bringing these bits of sage counsel to- 
gether, he believed he could make a greater 
impression. 

l^ov was he at fault in his calculation. He 
enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing the piece copied 
in all the newspapers of the country, and printed 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 133 

again on large sheets of paper in England, where 
they were stuck up on the walls of the dwellings. 
It was translated into French, and large numbers of 
the printed sheets were purchased by the clergy and 
gentry to distribute among their poor parishioners 
and tenants. The effect of it was such in the 
province of Pennsylvania that it was believed it 
put a stop, in a degree, to the use of foreign lux- 
uries, in consequence of which there was a great 
deal more monej^ kept at home than was ever 
known before. 

A few of the more current proverbs and '' wise 
saws" are given here, from this famous produc- 
tion. It is to be remembered, however, that they 
are taken fr(Tm the lips (in imagination) of a white- 
haired old man who is attending an auction sale 
of a broken merchant's goods, and to whom the 
bystanders j)ut the questions — "Pray, Father 
Abraham, what think ye of the times ? Won't 
these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How 
shall we ever be able to pay them ? What would 
you advise us to ?" The old man stood up and 
answered them — "If you'd have my advice, I'll 
give it to you in short ; ' for a word to the wise is 
enough, and many words won't fill a bushel,' as 
Poor Richard says." 

12 



134 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The old man goes on to speak of the taxes ; and 
tells his listeners that if those laid by the govern- 
ment were the only ones we had to pay, they would 
get along very well ; they were taxed twice as 
much by their idleness^ three times as much by 
i\\Q\Y pride, and four times as much by their folly. 
And, upon this, he quotes Poor Richard as say- 
ing — '•' God helps those who help themselves." 
*' Sloth, like .rust, consumes faster than labor 
wears ; while the key often used is alw^ays bright." 
^'Dost thou love life ? then do not squander time, 
for that's the stuff life is made of." "The sleep- 
ing fox catches no poultrj^, and there will be sleep- 
ing enough in the grave." " Lost time is never 
found again ; and what we call time enough, al- 
ways proves little enough." "Sloth makes all 
things difficult, but industry all easy." " He that 
rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce over- 
take his business at night ; while Laziness travels 
so slow that Poverty soon overtakes him." "Drive 
thy business ; let not that drive thee." 

And the old man tells them further, that nothins" 
is mended by the wishing ; it must needs come by 
work. There is no use in wishing the times were 
better; we 7nalce them better, if we bestir our- 
selves. "Industry needs not wish," — as Poor 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 135 

Eichard says. "He that lives upon hope will die 
fasting." "There are no gains without pains." 
"He that hath a trade, hath an estate : and he 
that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and 
honor." "At the workingman's house hunger 
looks in, but dare not enter." "Industry pays 
debts, but despair increaseth them." "Diligence 
is the mother of good luck;" and "God gives all 
things to industry; then plow deep w^hile slug- 
gards sleep, and you will have corn to sell and 
keep." "One to-day is worth two to-morrows." 
"Handle your tools without mittens." " The cat 
in gloves catches no mice." " Continual dropping 
wears away stones, and by diligence and patience 
the mouse ate into the cable, and light strokes fell 
great oaks." 

"When the old man is asked if we are to afford 
ourselves no leisure, he answers in proverbs ao;ain 
—"Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain 
leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, 
throw not away an hour." "A life of leisure and 
a life of laziness are two things." "Troubles 
spring from idleness, and grievous toils from need- 
less ease; many without labor would live by their 
own wits only ; but they break for w^ant of stock." 
"Fly pleasures, and they will follow you; the dil- 



136 BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 

igent spinner lias a large shift." But one must 
needs be settled and steady, or all his industry 
goes for little or nothing ; there, as Poor Richard 
says, — "Three removes are as bad as a fire." 
"Keep thy shop, and th}^ shop will keep thee." 
"If you would have your business done, go; if 
not, send." "The eye of the master will do more 
work than both his hands." " Want of care does 
us more damage than want of knowledge." "Not 
to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse 
open." "If you would have a faithful servant, 
and one that you like, serve yourself," "A little 
neglect may breed a great mischief." " For want 
of a nail, the shoe was lost ; for want of a shoe, 
the horse was lost ; and for want of a horse, the 
rider was lost ; being overtaken and slain by the 
enemy — all for want of care about a horse-shoe 
nail." • 

Then he talks to his listeners upon Frugality, 
showing them that they must practice frugality if 
they would make their industry successful. And 
he proceeds to quote Poor Richard as saying — "A 
fat kitchen makes a lean will." " If you would 
be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting." 
" What maintains one vice would bring up two 
children." "Beware of little expense; a small 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 137 

leak will sink a great ship." "Who dainties love 
shall heggars prove." "Fools make feasts, and 
wise men eat them." 

Speaking to the people about coming to an auc- 
tion sale to purchase goods because they expected 
to find them cheap, the old man warns them that, 
if they do not look out, they will find their goods 
to be eviU ; and he reminds them again of what 
Poor Richard says, — "Buy Avhat thou hast no need 
of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries." 
And again,—" It is foolish to lay out money in a 
purchase of repentance." " Silks and satins, scar- 
lets and velvets put out the kitchen fire." "For 
one poor person, there are a hundred indigent." 
" A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gen- 
tleman on his knees." On the subject of small 
spendings for needless things, the old man quotes 
Poor Richard as saying — "A child and a fool im- 
agine twenty shiUings and twenty years can never 
be spent; but always be taking out of the meal- 
tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the bot- 
tom." "Wlien the well is dry, they know the 
w^orth of water." "If you would know the value 
of money, go and try to borrow some ; for he that 
goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing." "Pride is 
as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more 



12* 



138 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

saucy." "It is easier to suppress the first desire 
than to satisfy all that follow it." "Pride that 
dines on vanity, sups on contempt." And again, 
— "Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with 
Poverty, and supped with Infamy." 

On the subject of running in debt, the old man 
scatters the pearls of his proverbs among the 
crowd in this wise: — "The second vice is lying; 
the first is running in debt." ''Lying rides on 
debt's back." "It is hard for an empty sack to 
stand upright." " Creditors have better memories 
than debtors;" and, once more, "Creditors are a 
superstitious sect, great observers of set days and 
times." " Those have a short Lent, who owe 
money to be paid at Easter." "For age and want 
save while you may, — ^o morning sun lasts a 
whole day." And telling the crowd about him 
that gain may be temporary and uncertain, but 
expense is ever constant and certain, he quotes 
Poor Pichard as saying — "It is easier to build two 
chimneys than to keep one in fuel." "Pather go 
to bed supperless than rise in debt." 

And after exhorting them not to trust, either 
to industry, frugality, and prudence altogether, 
which can help no one without the attendant 
blessing of Heaven, — he concludes his pithy and 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 139 

impressive address with a handful of summary 
injunctions, which may be called the marroAV of 
the matter, thus: — ''And now, to conclude, 'Ex- 
perience keeps a dear school ; but fools will learn 
in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we 
may give advice, but we cannot give conduct,' as 
Poor Eichard says. However, remember this, 
'They that will not be counselled cannot be 
helped,' as Poor Richard says ; and, farther, that 
' If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap 
your knuckles.' " 

And thus the old gentleman ended his har- 
angue. But he says that the people assembled 
at the auction went on and bought just as if he 
had not spoken to them at all, paying no heed to 
his proverbs and precepts. 

We have given this sample of "Poor Richard," 
because it was such a famous affair in its day, and 
its name lives after it. Probably no book, large 
or small, printed in America through the whole 
of the last centur}^, had such influence over the 
popular mind. Its shrewd wisdom commended it 
to all thoughtfully-inclined persons, while its dry 
humor and story-telling counsels attracted and 
impressed those who would have been reached 
by no other style of address. 



140 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin employed liis newspaper, too, in im- 
parting the same sort of moral instruction. Some- 
times he printed choice extracts from Addison's 
Spectator, and at other times he enlivened its 
columns with short pieces which he had first 
composed and read to the Junto ; among the rest, 
imaginary dialogues, discourses, and essays. At 
this time, he was not yet thirty years of age. 

He never used his columns for spreading scan- 
dal ; it was his opinion that personal altercations 
and abuse were become too common, and reflected 
only disgrace on the community ; and he made a 
worthy effort to put an end to the practice and to 
hold up a better example. Oftentimes he was 
urged by one and another to print in the paper 
some attack which they wished to make on other 
persons ; and when he denied them their request, 
they would bring up the illustration of the stage- 
coach, saying that a newspaper was just like that, 
in which any one who paid had a right to a place; 
but he stopped further importunities by telling 
them that if they wished, he would print their 
pieces separately, and they might take as many 
copies as they wanted. 

He sent oft^ one of his journeymen to Charles- 
ton, in 1733, where he heard a printer was 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 141 

wanted, supplying him with a press. The agree- 
ment was, that Franklin was to pay one-third the 
expense of the business, and have one-third of the 
profits. The man did not make returns of his 
business with any regularity, and after a time 
died, leaving matters entirely unsettled and loose 
between them ; but his wife, who was born and 
bred in Holland, and who had learned how to 
keep accounts, took charge of the affairs of her 
late husband, and sent him a plain statement of 
past transactions as well as regular business 
reports every three months afterward. So 
successfully did she manage the business, she 
brought up a family of children with credit, and 
finally bought out Franklin's share in the concern 
and set up her son at the head of it. 

About this time, he had an adventure with a 
Presbyterian minister who had lately come to 
Philadelphia to preach. He was a young man, 
with a fine voice, who drew to himself a crowd 
of admiring hearers from the different denomina- 
tions by his extemporaneous addresses. His dis- 
courses pleased Franklin too, from the fact that 
they were not of a dogmatical cast, but held up 
continually the need of "good works." Some of 
the more "orthodox" Presbyterians, with the 



142 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

older ministers, not liking his doctrine, brought 
him before the Synod on a charge of preaching 
heretical doctrines, and desired to have him 
silenced. Franklin took up for him with much 
zeal, writing and talking for him, and laboring to 
build up a party which would sustain him. But 
finding, as he relates, that, " though an elegant 
preacher, he was but a poor writer," he wrote for 
him two or three pamphlets together with a piece 
in the newspaper. But while the contest raged, 
it turned out that one of his adversaries remem- 
bered to have somewhere read a part of one of 
the most admired sermons which he had preached ; 
and, on looking the matter up, it turned out that 
he had been preaching a discourse, or the greater 
part of one, from a British clergyman, which had 
been before published in one of the Reviews. 
The friends of the young minister were sickened 
with this discovery, and at once abandoned him 
and his cause in disgust. But this was not the 
case with Franklin ; with his usual shrewdness, 
he stuck by him, giving as a reason that he was 
much more in favor of his giving them good dis- 
courses, though composed by another, than poor 
ones composed by himself! But the case went 
against him, nevertheless. , Before he left the 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 143 

town, the young minister frankly confessed to 
Franklin that he had not only stolen that sermon, 
but all his sermons, in the same way : his memory 
being such that he was able to retain and repeat 
any sermon after a single reading only. Franklin, 
left the congregation soon after the minister w^ent, 
and never w^orshipped with it again, though he 
paid over his subscription for the support of its 
ministers for many years. 

To qualify himself for such positions in life as 
he might be placed in, in the future, he began to 
study the languages about this time, and led off 
with the French ; and he very soon became so 
much a master of that tongue as to be able to 
read the books in it with ease and readiness. He 
next went upon Italian. A friend happened to 
be studying it at the same time, who used to often 
beg Franklin to play chess with him : but finding 
the game was taking up too much of his time, he 
told his friend he would play no more except on 
this condition, — that the one who won the game 
should have the right to impose on the other a 
stated task, either in the grammar, which was to 
be learned by heart, or in translating, — the same 
to be performed by the time of the next meeting. 
They were so evenly matched at the game that/ 



144 BEXJAMIX FRAXKLIX. 

as Franklin said, they fairly "'heat one another into 
that language." AVith a little pains and industry, 
he in time acquired sufficient knowledge of Span- 
ish to read books written in that tongue like- 
wise. 

After having thus gone into modern languages, 
he was greatly surprised, on looking into a Latin 
Testament, to find that he already understood 
more of that language than he had imagined. 
He had had a year's instruction in a Latin School, 
in his youth, hut never pursued his early acquaint- 
ance with the tongue ; he was now encouraged, 
however, to sro at the studv once more, and found 
his way made smooth by his previous success with 
the more modern lano^uao^es. From which fact he 
came to the conclusion that we generally pursue 
just the wrong course in the study of the lan- 
guages, by beginning with the Latin. His judg- 
ment was, that it was better to begin with the 
French, and proceed to the Italian and the Latin. 
For if the young student should never proceed 
farther than French, that language he would 
afterwards find of use to him ; but if, beginning 
with Latin, he stopped with that, his attainment 
would be of no practical value. 

By this time he had been absent from Boston, 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 145 

his native place, ten long years; changes had 
taken place in that period, and, among the rest, 
he found himself in easy circumstances. He de- 
termined to go and make a visit to his relatives 
at the East. He said he never could afford the 
expense of such a journey before now. He says 
nothing of his visit to Boston, however, but men- 
tions an incident which occurred at Newport, 
Rhode Island, where he stopped on his return to 
see his brother James, from whom he had run 
away years before. Their meeting was cordial 
and affectionate, all their former differences 
having been forgotten. The brother was still 
engaged in the printing business there, but his 
health was giving way, and he was looking* for 
the approach of his end. Weighed down with 
this apprehension, he requested his brother Ben- 
jamin to take home his son with him, then a lad 
of but ten years, and bring him up to the printing 
business. This he promised to do, and did do: 
although he sent the boy to school for a few years 
before putting him to work in the office. While 
the lad was thus engaged learning his trade, his 
mother was carrying on the business at Newport 
to the best of her skill ; and when he had finally 
qualified himself to be a printer, his Uncle Benja- 

13 



146 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

mill fiirnislied liim with an assortment of new 
types, and enabled liim to take the business at 
Newport off his mother's hands and carry it on 
himself. Franklin felt that in this way he made 
amends for the loss and trouble to which he sub- 
jected his older brother, when he ran away from 
him to Philadelphia. 

In the year 1736, he lost a little son, but four 
years old, by the small-pox. He had never been 
inoculated, which made it very difficult for the 
father to forgive himself for his neglect. 

The same year, he was chosen Clerk of the Gen- 
eral Assembly. There was no opposition to him 
that year; though when his name was proposed 
for the same office, the next year, a new member 
of the Assembly got up and made a long and loud 
speech against him, having a candidate of his own 
to brine: forward. Franklin was chosen, however. 
His pay as Clerk was of some assistance to him at 
that time ; but the interest for his business which 
an acquaintance with the members enabled him to 
make, was better than all. They voted that ho 
should do about the whole of the House printing. 
— the votes, the laws, the paper money, and thft 
other public jobs, great and small, which proved 
very profitable. The member who had risen and 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 147 

opposed him for the clerkship Franklin was desir- 
ous of appeasing, for he was a gentleman of for- 
tune, well educated, and possessed of talents that 
were likely to give him influence oyer the House 
in the future. Instead, however, of fawning upon 
him, he tried a trick of innocent flattery ; hearing 
that he had a certain rare and curious book in his 
library, he wrote him a note, saying that he heard 
the gentleman had such a book, and requesting 
the favor of its loan for a few days. The book 
ivas lent him, of course ; Franklin returned it in 
about a w^eek, with many thanks, which he ex- 
pressed with care in another note. The gentle- 
man came over and spoke to him the next time 
the house met, — a thing he had never done be- 
fore, — accosting him with great civility. The result 
of it was, he ever afterwards showed a willing- 
ness to serve Franklin in such way as he could, 
and they struck up a friendship that lasted until 
death. 

The postmaster-general of the provinces. Gov- 
ernor Spotswood, late Governor of Virginia, was 
not altogether satisfied with his Philadelphia 
deputy, and in 1737 he removed him and appointed 
Franklin to his place. The former incumbent had 
been guilty of negligence in sending in his office 



148 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

accounts, and of want of exactness in drawing 
them up. Franklin accepted tlie office without 
hesitation, and found it of great help to him every 
way. The salary it returned him was by no means 
large, but it afforded him a good many favorable 
opportunities to supply his newspaper with cor- 
respondence and advertisements both, while it also 
enabled him to increase his circulation. The op- 
position paper began to decline as the Gazette 
advanced ; but Franklin remembered his resolve, 
taken when he was in "the day of small things" 
himself, not to treat a rival as . scurvily as the for- 
mer post-master had treated him. He therefore 
permitted the post-riders to carry the other papers 
just as freely as they did his own. 

His mind now turned more actively to public 
matters than ever. He began with paying atten- 
tion to small aifairs ; but by doing his duty to 
those well and thoroughly, he qualified himself 
for that wider field to which he was destined not 
long afterward to be called. First, he looked into 
the city watch business. The constables of the 
different wards took turns in managing it. Each 
summoned a certain number of housekeepers to 
go around the town with him during the night. 
"We have to smile, recalling these primitive cus- 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 149 

toms and contrasting them with the day and night 
police system of the present time. 

Franklin found, on investigation, that such as 
chose to pay the constable six shillings a year to 
be excused, which sum was popularly thought to 
go for hiring substitutes, could be let off entirely. 
But that sum he found to be a great deal more 
than sufficient to hire all the substitutes that were 
wanted, the amount left over furnishing the con- 
stable taking it a handsome little profit; the only 
money which the latter spent being for a little 
drink, with which he used to hire such men to 
patrol the streets along with him as the respecta- 
ble portion of the citizens did not choose to mix 
with. Besides, they did not walk their rounds, 
either ; they would collect at some place, and pass 
the night in tippling. 

The matter was first brought up by Franklin in 
the Junto. He wrote a paper on it, setting forth 
the wretched way in which watch was kept for the 
town, but showing up more especially the injus- 
tice of exacting the sum of six shillings per head 
from every person who expected to derive benefit 
from the assessment; for a poor widow, whose 
whole property might not amount to more than. 

fifty pounds, was taxed just as much toward sup- 
13* ^ 



150 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

porting the watcli as tlie merchant who had thou- 
sands of pounds' worth of goods in his stores. 
He proposed, instead of this, the hiring of proper 
men to serve at the business constantly ; and his 
plan was, to pay them their wages by taxing ;:»rop- 
erty, rather than persons. The idea took well with 
the Junto, and was communicated to all the other 
clubs which had sprung from it and were still con- 
nected with it. And although, as a distinct plan, 
it w^as not immediately carried into execution, it 
nevertheless set matters in such a train that after 
a time the people of Philadelphia settled upon it 
as a fixed policy ; and great good came from it to 
all interests. 

Franklin likewise paid attention, at this time, 
to the causes of fires, and the best modes of pre- 
venting as well as extinguishing them. He wrote 
a paper on the subject, and published it in the Ga- 
zette. It took well with the people at large, and 
led to the formation of a company of citizens, for 
the rapid extinguishment of fires, — or what we 
should now style a "fire company." Thirty in 
all joined it at first, whose business was to be not 
only the speedy putting out of fires but the saving 
of goods also, when in danger. Each member 
.was required to 'keep at hand a certain number of 



BECOMING A PUBLIC MAN. 151 

leather buckets, in good order and fit for use, to- 
gether with strong bags and baskets for removing 
goods ; and all were to be brought to every fire 
that broke out. About once a month they passed 
a social evening together, engaged chiefly in talk- 
ing on fires and the readiest way to overcome their 
destructiveness. 

So well were the citizens pleased with the new 
idea, they banded together to form other compa- 
nies ; and at length the greater part of the men 
of property in town were included in one or an- 
other of these most useful organizations. At least 
fifty years after Franklin formed the first associa- 
tion, then known as the " Union Fire Associa- 
tion," it was still in existence ; and at that time 
all but one, besides Franklin, w^ere dead. The 
fines which were levied found them in ladders, fire 
hooks, and engines ; and for the long period of 
half a century, so excellent was the system, the 
city never lost by fire more than two houses at a 
time. 



152 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GEORGE WHITFIELD — SOLDIERING — A PHILOSOPHER. 

THE famous preacher, George "Whitfield, 
came to Philadelphia in 1739, from Ireland. 
His fiime as a revival preacher had gone be- 
fore him. In the course of his life, he crossed the 
Atlantic a great many times, for a man of that 
generation, and seemed drawn to the people of 
America by very strong ties. When he first made 
his appearance in Philadelphia, the clerg}- permit- 
ted him to hold forth in their churches ; but after 
a time they fell out with him for some reason, and 
he was obliged to assemble his auditory in the 
open fields. 

People of every denomination and belief flocked 
to hear him. He called assemblies about him, to 
listen to his masterly harangues, such as the men 
of that day had never beheld. They gathered at the 
sound of his voice in battalions, by the thousands 
and tens of thousands. Franklin used to wonder 



GEORGE WHITFIELD. 153 

Low they had patience to listen to him, when he 
was continnally flinging the most savage denuncia- 
tions in their faces, and telling them that by nature 
they w^ere "half beasts and half devils." But 
there was an almost weird magnetism about this 
remarkable man, holding others spell-bound by 
the very tones of his voice. His declamatory 
power was indescribable. The effect immediately 
produced upon the popular mind it is not easy to 
reproduce in narrative. Everybody seemed to 
have suddenly become deeply concerned for his 
soul. The town dropped its habit of indifference 
and levity, and put on an air of the most serious 
thoughtfulness. Franklin describes it — "it seemed 
as if all the ivorld were growing religious, so that 
one could not walk through the town in an even- 
ing w^ithout hearing psalms sung in different fami- 
lies of every street." 

After a time, it was found inconvenient to con- 
tinue these monster meetings in the open air, on 
account of the inclement weather as well as for 
other reasons ; and it was proposed to build a 
house of some sort, that should accommodate all 
who wished to hear the new apostle. Money was 
very speedily contributed, in sums sufficient to 
purchase ground and erect a building one hun- 



154 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

dred feet long and seventy broad ; and the citizens 
fell to the work with such zeal that it was com- 
pleted long before they had any of them believed 
it possible. The whole property was placed in 
the hands of trustees, the condition being that it 
should be used for the accommodation " of any 
preacher of any religious persuasion," who might 
ever wish to speak to the people of Philadelphia. 
The design was, to accommodate the people 
rather than the sects; so that, as Franklin ex- 
pressed it, '' even if the Mufti of Constantinople 
were to send a missionary to preach Mahometan- 
ism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service." 

Whitfield went south, as far as Georgia, after 
leaving Philadelphia, preaching as he went. He 
collected crowds around him wherever he stopped 
to exhort, and left impressions that outlasted even 
the generation which listened to his tumultuous 
words. After going among the peoj^le of the 
then ne^y colony of Georgia and becoming 
thoroughly acquainted with their situation, he 
was deeply impressed with the fact that they 
were in an almost helpless condition, and re- 
solved to come back and solicit charity on their 
behalf. The preacher's plan was to build an 
orphan asylum for the numbers of poor children 



GEORGE WHITFIELD. 155 

that were left destitute by the misfortunes of their 
parents ; and large and generous collections were 
immediately sent in on behalf of this project. 

It appears that the early colonists of Georgia 
were made up of broken-down London shop- 
keepers and insolvent debtors: men who could 
do nothing more for themselves or their families 
at home, and of whom still less might be expected 
abroad, especially in a wilderness. Many of these 
settlers had been taken from the common jails in 
the old country, and were of fixed and unchange- 
able habits of idleness. Such a class of persons, 
on being set down in the woods with their 
families, could hardly be expected to hew their 
way through the surrounding roughness to com- 
fort and plenty. In consequence of this inability 
to help themselves, therefore, they perished by 
scores, leaving a crowd of miserable children 
behind to be assisted by charity or to die. 

Whitfield's plan, on his return to Pennsylvania, 
was to provide a grand asylum for these children 
of want, and he had, as already mentioned, col- 
lected large sums for that purpose in Philadel- 
phia. Franklin lent his sympathy to the project, 
but he thought it better that the building in 
question should be erected in Philadelphia than 



156 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

off in Georgia, and that the children should be 
brought iTorth. There was another considera- 
tion : if it were to be built in Georgia, a large 
number of mechanics would have to go out there 
from Philadelphia, and Franklin was averse to 
letting so valuable an element of their own colony 
go away. He therefore refused to contribute a 
cent to the project, Whitfield meantime just as 
stoutly refusing to listen to his suggestion to build 
the asylum at Philadelphia. 

While thus resolute against giving the great 
preacher anything to help him on, Franklin 
pleasantly narrates a characteristic incident that 
concerns each of the parties to it about equally :— 
"I happened soon after to attend one of his 
(Whitfield's) sermons, in the course of which I 
perceived he intended to finish with a collection ; 
and I silently resolved he should get nothing 
from me. I had, in my pocket, a handful of 
copper money, three or four silver dollars, and 
five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded, I began to 
soften^ and concluded to give the copper. An- 
other stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of 
that, and determined me to give the silver ; and 
he finished so admirably, that I emftied my pocket 
wholly into the collector s dish, gold and all. At this 



GEORGE WHITFIELD. 157 

sermon there was also one of our dub, who, being 
of my sentiments respecting the building in 
Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be 
intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets 
before he came from home. Towards the conclu- 
sion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong 
inclination to give, and applied to a neighbor, 
who stood near him, to lend him some money for 
the purpose. The request was fortunately made 
to perhaps the only man in the company who had 
the firmness not to be affected by the preacher. 
His answer was, ^At any other time, friend Hop- 
kinson, I would lend to thee freely; but not now; 
for thee seems to be out of thy right senses.' " 

Franklin says there was a suspicion with some 
that Mr. Whitfield would apply the contributions 
he obtained to his own uses; but, for himself, he 
never harbored such a thought. He was more or 
less intimate with the great preacher, and printed 
his sermons and journals for him ; and he believed 
him to be a thoroughly honest man, incapable of 
taking any such mean advantage of his position. 
Their friendship was sincere, and lasted as long 
as both lived. Whitfield used to put up prayers 
for Franklin's conversion, but the latter says " he 

never had the satisfaction of believing that his 
14 



15b BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

prayers were heard." To illustrate the character 
of their friendship, Franklin relates the following 
anecdote : — " Upon one of his arrivals from Eng- 
land at Boston, he wrote to me that he should 
come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where 
he could lodge when there, as he understood his 
old friend and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to 
Germantown. My answer was, 'You know my 
house ; if you can make shift with its scanty 
accommodations, you will he most heartily wel- 
come.' He replied, that if I made that kind offer 
for CJirisfs sake, I should not miss of a reward. 
And I returned, ' Don't let me he mistaken ; it 
was not for Christ's sake, hut for ^ow^ sake.' " 

According to Franklin's account, the great 
preacher had- a loud and clear voice, and articu- 
lated every word so perfectly that he could be 
heard and understood a great ways. One evening, 
while he was preaching from the Court House 
steps in the middle of Market street, Franklin had 
the curiosity to test the power of his voice, which 
he did in the following ingenious manner. Both 
Market and Second streets were tilled to a consid- 
erable distance. Franklin was on the further edge 
of the crowd in Market street, and kept retreating 
gradually toward the river. He could hear Wliit- 



GEORGE WHITFIELD. 159 

field's voice with distinctness until he came near 
Front street, where the noise of that street obscured 
it. With this basis of calculation, he imagined a 
semicircular space, of which a direct line from 
himself to the preacher should be the radius, 
filled with people ; and, by allowing two square 
feet to each person, he calculated that he could be 
heard by more than thirty thousand people. This 
estimate inclined him to believe the stories which 
had been told of Whitfield's having preached to 
twenty-five thousand people in the fields. 

Franklin found he could soon detect one of his 
new discourses from an old one; the latter was 
much better delivered, owing to the practice ob- 
tained in repeating it so many times. He says 
that " every accent, every emphasis, every modu- 
lation of voice was so perfectly well turned and 
well placed, that, without being interested in the 
subject, one could not help being pleased with the 
discourse, — a pleasure of much the same kind 
with that received from an excellent piece of 
music." 

The printing business of Franklin was rapidly 
increasing, and he was becoming a man of means 
and a substantial citizen. He now saw the actual 
fruits of frugality, industry, and perseverance. 



IGO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

His plans had thus far resulted just as he would 
liave had them. He writes of himself that he 
now experienced the truth of an old remark, " that^ 
after getting the first hundred pounds, it is more 
easy to get the second," — money having a wonder- 
ful faculty of m.ultiplying itself. He engaged at 
this time in several partnerships, having found the 
one in South Carolina so profitable. Such of his 
workmen as had behaved well he sent oS into 
other colonies, and helped them to establish print- 
ing-houses ; the larger part of them turned out 
prosperously, being able, at the end of the term 
of their engagement (six years), to purchase the 
types of Franklin for themselves. In no single 
partnership of this sort did he find himself with a 
quarrel on his hands; they were all carried on, 
and all ended, amicably. The great reason for 
this good fortune he ascribed to the fact that, in 
making engagements of this sort, every part of 
the contract was clearly laid down and so well 
understood in the first place, that there was no 
possibilities of any future falling out. And this 
point Franklin especially enjoins upon all persons 
who are thinking of forming partnerships; "for," 
says he, "whatever esteem partners ma^^have for, 
or confidence in, each other at the time of the 



SOLDIERING. 161 

contract, little jealousies and disgusts may arise, 
with ideas of inequality in the care and burden, 
business, etc., which are attended often with breach 
of friendship and of the connection ; perhaps with 
lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences." 

There were two prime wants in the Pennsylva- 
nia colony, at this time, which Franklin turned 
his attention to, in the hope of having them 
speedily supplied ; there was no militia system, 
and no college. The one was of the first import- 
ance as a matter of defence for the colony in these 
troubled times, and the other was needed for the 
proper education of youth. In the year 1748, 
he drew up a plan for founding an academy, and 
made an effort to obtain a teacher ; but the scheme 
was laid aside for that year, and, in the following 
year, he brought forward with success his plans 
for establishing a "Philosophical Society." 

Spain was at war with Great Britain at this time, 
and France had just joined her; this state of affairs 
led the first citizens of Pennsylvania colony to 
look around and see how they could ward off dan- 
ger from their boundaries. The Governor of the 
colony, Thomas, had urged the Assembly (which 
was composed of Quakers) in vain to pass a mili- 
tia law and make provision for defence ; and 



162 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin resolved to try voluntary contributions. 
For this purpose lie printed a pamplet, to which 
he gave the name Plain Truth ; and in the course 
of it he set forth their helpless condition and 
urged the need of immediate steps for defence, 
adding that in a few days he should propose an 
association to the people at large. 

The pamphlet produced just the right effect. 
The citizens without hesitation called upon the 
author for his plan of association. He drew it up 
hastily in connection with a few friends, and called 
a general town meeting in the big building which 
had been erected for liberal preaching. He had 
previously prepared a number of copies of his new 
plan, and placed pens and ink about the room 
where access could readily be had to them. Then 
after addressing the people on the subject, he 
caused copies of his draft to be circulated, and 
called on the people to subscribe their names with- 
out reserve. On counting up these names, after 
the meeting adjourned, it was found that twelve 
hund.red men had subscribed to the new agree- 
ment; and after sending it abroad over the coun- 
try, the plan received the signatures of more than 
ten thousand colonists ! 

This was a good beginning. The ",Plain Truth' ' 



SOLDIERING. 163 

pamphlet had thus far done a noble work. This 
large body of men provided themselves as soon as 
they could with arms, formed themselves into com- 
panies, chose officers, and met every week for drill. 
The w^omen, not to be outdone in patriotism, made 
silk colors for the several companies, painting and 
working upon them such devices and mottoes as 
Franklin supplied them wdth. 

The officers of the regiment w^hich w^as formed 
in Philadelphia, met and chose Franklin their 
Colonel. He felt that he w^as not qualified for the 
post, and desired them to appoint a Mr. Lawrence 
— a gentleman of influence — in hi^ place, w^hich 
they finally did. The first thing to be done, after 
this, was the erection of a battery below the tow^n 
and mounting it with cannon. The problem w^as, 
how to supply the cannon. Franklin, whose wits 
seemed always about him, proposed a lottery for 
the purpose of defraying the expense of building 
the battery ; and the tickets were soon taken up, 
and the w^ork on the battery speedily begun. The 
defenses were merely of logs, filled in with earth. 

The citizens bought some cannon in Boston ; 
and sent to London for some ; wdien they sent over 
to the latter place, they put in their claims before 
the Proprietaries of the province, hoping to in- 



164 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

duce them to offer their assistance to the young 
settlement also. Col. Lawrence, Franklin, and 
two other gentlemen meanwhile went to New 
York, commissioned to ask of Gov. Clinton, in 
the name of the association, a few pieces of can- 
non, — as many as they could get from him. At 
first, the Governor plumply refused ; hut he was 
again plied with their requests, while at dinner 
with his Council, where much good old Madeira 
was drunk, and he relented so far as to consent 
to loan six. The wine still going round, he agreed 
to let te7i go ; and, at last, becoming still more 
mellow, he consented to part with eighteen. They 
were good pieces, eighteen-pounders, and mounted 
on carriages. They were taken forthwith across 
to Philadelphia, mounted on the hatter}^, and all 
ready for the approach of an enemy. A watch 
was kept up by the signers to the military associa- 
tion, every night during the continuance of the 
war ; and Franklin took his turn with the rest, in 
pacing his weary walk beneath the stars. It was 
his first experience as a common soldier. 

Seeing of what worth he was in the community, 
the Governor and Council immediately took him 
into their confidence, and freely consulted him iu 
every instance where they believed they could fur- 



SOLDIERING. 165 

ther the plans of the Diilitarj organization. With 
his many other suggestions, he proposed that a 
Fast Day should be observed, as was the custom 
at stated times in !N"ew England. He would have 
them ask the blessing of Heaven on their under- 
taking. The Governor not being familiar with 
the forms, and the Secretary being just as ignorant 
of them, recourse was had to Franklin, who drew 
the proclamation after the ^ew England style ; 
it was next translated into German and scattered 
through the province. 

Some of his friends feared that Franklin's ac- 
tivity in these war matters would make him un- 
popular with the Quakers, who were practically 
peace men, and who had a large majority in the 
Assembly. One young man, who had friends in 
that body, and wished to be elected to the Clerk- 
ship himself, came and told him that it was deter- 
mined to defeat him at the next session ; and 
rather than see him disgraced in that way, he 
coolly advised him to resign. Franklin informed 
him, in reply, that he had once heard, or read, of 
a public man who made4t a rule never to ask for 
an office, and never to refuse it when offered him. 
^'I approve," said he, "of this rule, and shall 
practice it with a small addition ; I shall never 



166 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ash, never refuse, and never resign an office." This 
was plump and plain ; and his mousing competitor 
must have gone away satisfied. Franklin, how- 
ever, was chosen Clerk at the next session ; they 
could find no other reason for defeating him than 
his connection with the war association, and they 
did not care to put their action on that ground. 
His testimony goes to show, in fact, that Quakers 
would fight on the defensive, at any rate. 

He relates one anecdote which illustrates their 
peculiar feeling at that time. At a meeting of 
their Fire Company, — the same which he had 
originated or set on foot, — it was proposed to take 
the sixty pounds which belonged to the company 
and invest it in lottery tickets for the erection of 
the battery below the town. The matter had to 
be laid over for discussion till the next meeting. 
In the fire company were thirty members, twenty- 
two of whom were Quakers. The eight outside 
ones were very punctual at the meeting, although 
they had no idea of carrying Quakers enough with 
them to make up a majority for the project. Only 
one Quaker, however, appeared to oppose the 
scheme ; he was sorry the thing had been brought 
up, for the Friends were all against it, and the fire 
company was in danger of being broken up by it. 



SOLDIERING. 167 

He was answered, however, that nothing was 
easier than for the Quakers to vote down the rest, 
as they clearly outnumbered them, and the will 
of the majority would of course be submitted to. 
At last the hoar came for bringing the matter to a 
vote. Mr. Morris admitted that the rules allowed 
them to do it, but there were a number not then 
present, who intended to come in and vote against 
it, and it would be only fair to give them time to 
assemble. Just at this moment, a servant came 
in and communicated to Franklin that a couple 
of gentlemen below would like to speak with him. 
He went down and found two members of the 
company, Quakers. They told him there were 
eight of them in a tavern close at hand, and that 
they were all of them ready to come in and vote 
for the proposal if it should be necessary, although 
they would prefer not to be called upon if it could 
be managed without them, since it would make 
trouble for them with their friends. 

Franklin went back up stairs feeling easier ; for 
now he knew that he could carry a majority with 
him in any case. He could afford to be magnani- 
mous, therefore, and agreed to wait another hour, 
knowing well enough that a majority of his op- 
ponents would never come in. Mr. Alorris ad- 



168 BENJAMIX FRANKLIN. 

mitted that tliis second -delay waa extremely fair. 
But after mucli waiting it waa found tliat not one 
of his side came in, and of course there was no 
need of sending for the men at the tavern. So at 
the expiration of the hour the motion was put and 
carried, by a vote of eight to one ! This showed 
how peaceful even Quakers were, when a war 
pinch came. 

The Quaker, too, who placed the sixty pounds in 
Franklin's hands to purchase the lottery tickets 
with, — Mr. Logan, — wrote a pamphlet in favor of 
defensive war. In the course of his many conver- 
sations with Franklin, he told him the following 
anecdote of his old master, William Penn, bear- 
ing directly on that point: He came over from 
England with him when a young man, as his Sec- 
retary. As it was in a time of war, the ship they 
came in was chased by an armed vessel which was 
supposed to be an enemy. The captain made 
ready for defending his craft, but told Penn and 
his company of Quakers that, as he did not expect 
any help from them during the conflict, they were 
at liberty to retire into the cabin. All of them 
complied with the suggestion, except young Lo- 
gan ; he preferred to stay on deck and assist at 
the defence; and the officer appointed him to a 



SOLDIERING. 169 

place at one of the guns. But it turned out that 
the enemy was no enemy, and there was therefore 
np fighting to do. When, however, the young 
Secretary went helow to communicate the news to 
William Penn, the latter administered to him a 
stern rebuke for doing as he had done, — remain- 
ing upon deck and offering to take a paii: in the 
defence ; and reminded him that it was contrary 
to the princij)les of the Friends. Logan did not 
exactly like to he rebuked in this style by his 
master, before all the company. So he answered 
to him — " I being thy servant, why did thee not 
order me to come down? But thee was willins: 
enough that I should stay and help to fight the 
ship, wlien thee thought there tuas danger !" 

Franklin was many times amused, while in the 
Assembly, to observe the little subterfuges and 
excuses they resorted to, in order to help on the 
Crown in matters of war, when called on for aid j 
they were patriotic at heart, but peaceful on prin- 
ciple ; they hated to refuse the government, and 
still would not off*end one another by transgress- 
ing their own religious rules : whenever the As- 
sembly, therefore, — which was by a large majority 
Quaker, — voted money for the defence of the pro- 
vince, it always took pains to word the grant as 
15 



170 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

"for tlie King's use/' but making no mention, 
how it was to be applied. When powder was 
wanted for the garrison at Louisburg, and New 
England begged it of Pennsylvania, they refused 
to grant money to buy powder, because that was 
an article of war; but they roguishly voted to 
place three thousand pounds in the hands of the 
Governor, and appropriate it for the purchase of 
bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. Some of the 
Council, with the hope of embarrassing the Gov- 
ernor, advised him not to accept provision^ as that 
was not what he had asked from the Assembly ; 
but he said he should do it nevertheless, "for I 
understand very well their meaning ; other gy^ain 
is gunpowder." And the "other grain" was 
bought by him for New England, and no objection 
made to it, either. 

Had the proposal before the fire company — to 
invest the company's money in lottery tickets — 
failed to pass, Franklin said he should have 
moved to purchase a fire engine with it ; and, if 
that plan had passed, he should have bought a 
'^ great gun^'' which is a fire engirie, beyond a 
doubt. 

Having invented, only three or four years 
before, an open stove for the better warming of 



A PHILOSOPHER. 171 

rooms and the saving* of fuel, he presented his 
model to his friend, Robert Grace, who owned a 
furnace and found the casting of the stove plates 
very profitable, the stoves being in active demand. 
In order to extend the sale of his new stove still 
more, he wrote and published a pamphlet, styled 
— ^'An Account of the new-invented Pennsyl- 
vanian Fire-places," &c., &c. The pamphlet had 
an excellent effect in the direction intended. The 
Governor was so well pleased with the construc- 
tion of the stove, from merely reading its descrip- 
tion in the pamphlet, that he offered to give 
Franklin a patent, with the sole right to sell all 
the stoves manufactured under it, for three years 
to come ; but the latter declined the gift, in 
obedience to a rule which he says ever weighed 
with him on such occasions, — " that, as we enjoy 
£:reat advantao-es from the inventions of others, 
we should be glad of an opportunity to serve 
others by any invention of ours ; and this we 
should do freely and generously." 

The "Franklin Stove" was known to the 
people of the present generation, and remained 
an ornament in many a parlor and living-room 
until coal so generally superseded the use of 
wood. 



172 BENJxlMIN FRANKLIN. 

We may now consider Franklin well started on 
Ms career as a Philosopher. In the succeeding 
chapter, we shall show how he applied his invent- 
ive talent and acute observation to the devising 
of various schemes by which his fellow-citizens 
would be made more comfortable and happy. 



GETTING FAME. 173 



CHAPTER YIII. 



GETTING FAME. 



AS soon as the war was over, Franklin gave 
over all further thought about the Asso- 
ciation, of course ; and the next plan to 
which he turned his attention was the establish- 
ment of an Academy. To bring the matter 
before the public, he first associated himself with 
a number of friends from the Junto, and next 
published a pamphlet, styled " Proposals relating 
to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." 
By distributing this freely among the people, 
without cost, he prepared their minds for the 
proposal which he was all ready to make to them ; 
which was, to start a subscription for opening and 
supporting an academy, the sums subscribed by 
each person to be paid in yearly instalments for 
five years. He believed that he could raise more 

money by dividing the burden in this way. 'Nov, 
15^ 



174 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

indeed, was his calculation out of the way, for lie 
secured about five thousand pounds. 

He did not bring Jnmself .forw^ard as the author 
of the scheme, and therefore secured for it more 
immediate favor. The subscribers chose twenty- 
four trustees to carry the plan out, and appointed 
the Attorney-General, Mr. Francis, and himself, 
to draft a proper Constitution. All signed the 
articles, teachers were hired, and the school 
opened without further delay. 

This was in the year 1749. The pupils came 
in so fast that it was found necessary to find 
larger quarters for them ; and the committee were 
looking for a place to erect a building upon, when 
the large structure erected for the Wliitfield meet- 
ings was suggested to them, and arrangements 
soon completed for its occupancy. Franklin 
chanced to be a member of the Board of Trustees 
for the Church and the Academy both; and he 
was the more convenient agent for carrying out 
the transaction. The Church trustees were ready 
to dispose of the property, because the enthusiasm 
which was first excited over the project had been 
by this time far spent, and for the additional 
reason that they (the trustees) could not raise 
money enough to pay the ground rent with regu- 



GETTING FAME. 175 

larity; and Franklin brougbt about a cession of 
the property to the trustees of the new Academy, 
on condition that the latter should discharo:e this 
debt, and likewise keep open in the building a 
hall for occasional preachers, as was the original 
intention, and, furthermore, support a free school 
for the instruction of poor children. 

The property changed hands with this under- 
standing, and the great building at once under- 
went many changes. The high hall was con- 
verted into stories, and rooms were constructed, 
above and below, for the convenience of the 
scholars. The entire labor came on Franklin's 
shoulders, — buying materials, agreeing with the 
workmen, and overseeing the operations. But 
he got through it successfully, and the scholars 
were all moved in. 

He was arrived at a condition of decided pros- 
perity by this time, and could well give his time 
to public business of this sort. Only the year 
before he had taken a capable and trusty partner, 
David Hall by name, who had already been in his 
employ for four years ; and he found, by this new 
arrangement, that all the business was taken off 
his hands, Mr. Hall assuming full charge of the 
printing-office and paying him over his share of 



176 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the profits of the establishment. They went on 
together in this manner for eighteen years, and 
success attended them through the whole of that 
long term. "With the leisure which was now at 
his disposal, he gave much attention to the inter- 
ests of the Academy. A charter of incorporation 
was obtained from the Governor, and land was 
ceded by the Proprietaries of the province, and 
money contributed by friends in England ; the 
Assembly also gave its aid, and in due time this 
beginning resulted in what is known as the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. Franklin continued one 
of its trustees for forty years ; and he lived to see 
many of its pupils filling important stations and 
adorning the State to which they owed their birth 
and education. 

He had just begun to feel easy in the assurance 
that he had now fortune enough to secure to him 
all the leisure he wanted for the prosecution of 
his philosophical studies, to which he intended to 
devote the remainder of his life. He had pur- 
chased the apparatus of Dr. Spence, who was 
come over from England to lecture in Philadel- 
phia, and entered upon his electrical experiments 
with great enthusiasm. So far, very well : but 
the public, seeing that he had this leisure on his 



GETTING FAME. 177 

hands, coveted it of him ; they meant to lay hold 
of his time and talents both, and make them 
serviceable for the general good. 

He was called into almost every branch of 
public life. By the Governor he was made a 
Justice of the Peace ; the city corporation made 
him at first a member of the Common Council, 
and afterwards an Alderman ; and the citizens at 
large elected him to represent them in the 
Assembly. He was grateful for the last post: 
for he confessed that he had become tired, long 
ago, of hearing the debates in his clerk's seat, 
without the privilege of taking part in them, and 
he felt that his power and influence would very 
much expand by the new gift. His ambition, too, 
was not a little flattered by the election, for he 
considered that, starting from what he styled his 
" low beginnings," it was a great thing for him. 
But, better than all, he was glad to know he was 
held in such esteem by his countrymen. 

After sitting as Justice for a few times, he 
found that his limited knowledge of law hardly 
allowed him to act in that capacity, and he accord- 
ingly withdrew from it, offering by way of excuse 
that he was called upon to attend to his duties as 



178 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

a legislator. He took his seat in the House, and 
his son was appointed Clerk. 

In the following year, he was appointed by the 
House, together with the Speaker, a Commis- 
sioner to make a treaty with the Indians at Car- 
lisle. Arriving at that place among them, the 
Commission ordered that the red men should 
have not a drop of liquor sold them, as they were 
very apt to get drunk and to become disorderly. 
The Indians made sore complaint about it ; and, 
to quiet them, they were told that, if they would 
keep sober while the treaty was under discussion, 
they should have plenty of rum afterwards. This 
agreement was faithfully carried out. But when 
they got their rum at last, the business having all 
been finished, they made a famous powwow over it. 
There were nearly a hundred of them in all, — 
men, women, and children, — and they lodged in 
cabins, erected in the form of a square, just out- 
side the town. 

The Commissioners heard a wild noise among 
them in the evening, and walked over to see what 
was the cause of it. They found their red breth- 
ren had kindled a large bonfire in the middle of 
the square, around which they were dancing, and 



GETTING FAME. 179 

yelling, and quarrelling. Men and women were 
mixed together, and all were drunk. Franklin 
said that "their dark-colored bodies, half-naked, 
seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, run- 
ning after and beating one another with fire- 
brands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, 
formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of 
hell that could well be imagined." The Com- 
missioners found they could do nothing with 
them, and therefore went bacK to their lodgings. 
About midnight, they were startled by thunder- 
ings at their door, which turned out to be the 
Indians, come for more rum ; but no notice was 
taken of them. 

They were conscious that they had done wrong, 
however, and the next day sent over three of their 
oldest counsellors with an apology. The one who 
spoke for the others acknowledged their fault, but 
he laid it to the rum ; and then, wishing to say a 
good word for the rum, gave the following ex- 
planation : — " The Great Spirit, who made all 
things, made everything for some use ; and what- 
ever use he designed anything for, that use it 
should always be put to. ^ow, when he made 
rum, he said, 'Let this he for the Indians to get 
drunk ivith !' — and it must be so." 



180 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin was appealed to, in the year 1751, to 
aid in establishing a hospital in Philadelphia, for 
the reception and cure of poor sick persons, 
whether they happened to belong to the province 
or were strangers. A subscription had already 
been set on foot for it, but thus far little had been 
accomplished ; the plan was a novelty in the 
country, and few had sufficient confidence in it 
to give it a start. At length Franklin was ap- 
proached on the subject. He was told that no 
public measure could be carried through unless 
he was at the bottom of it. Everybody who had 
been addressed upon this hospital scheme, wished 
to know first what 'Franklin tliought about it. 
People would commit themselves to nothing 
until they heard from Mm. 

So he took hold, and, after his usual method, 
began by waiting brief articles on the subject for 
the newspapers. The subscriptions increased at 
once ; vet not fast enous^h to warrant the success 
of the plan without help from the Assembly. 
He therefore drew a petition to that body. The 
country members had no relish for the project ; 
their objection was, that it would only be of ser- 
vice to the city, and that the citizens should defray 
the expense. They even doubted if the inhabit- 



GETTING FAME. 181 

ants of Philadelphia were in favor of the plan 
themselves ; but Franklin assured them they were 
greatly mistaken, for he had no doubt about rais- 
ing at least two thousand pounds by voluntary con- 
tributions. They were faithless, but he went for- 
ward with his plan. The bill of incorporation 
was drawn with the condition, that when the con- 
tributors to the stock should organize and raise 
two thousand pounds, and satisfy the Speaker of 
the Assembly that that sum had been raised, — 
then the Speaker was authorized and required to 
draw on the provincial treasurer for two thousand 
pounds more, in two yearly payments, "for the 
founding, building and finishing of the hospitah'* 
The nionej^ raised by the contributors was to b-e 
put at interest, and the income applied to the ac^ 
commodation of the sick poor in the hospital. On 
this condition the bill was passed. Ko difficulty 
was found in raising the whole sum desired, for 
every contributor felt that for each pound that he 
gave the province was to give another. 

A handsome building was speedily erected for- 
the hospital, and the project went into practical 
and successful operation immediately afterward. 
Franklin said that none of his subsequent "politi- 
cal manoeuvres" gave him more pleasure; and. 
16 



182 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

none furnished liim more readily with excuses for 
using a little cunning. 

Next came to liim a clergyman with a request 
that he would help him in getting up a subscrip- 
tion for building a new meeting-house. He at 
once refused ; he was not willing to make himself 
disagreeable to his fellow-citizens by dunning 
itbem for alms. The clergyman then wished him 
to furnish him with a list of the names of the most 
generous and willing givers ! But Franklin 
thought — and thought correctly — that a man's 
generosity should not make him an object to be 
worried by beggars, and he refused. Finally, 
seeing he could get no more, the man asked him 
for his advice. " That I will give you," answered 
Franklin. " In the first place, I advise you to ap- 
ply to all those who you know will give some- 
thing ; next, to those who you are uncertain 
whether they will give anything or not, and show 
them tlie list of those who have given ; and lastly, 
do not neglect those who you are sure will give 
nothing, for in some of them you may be mis- 
taken." The man laughed, thanked him, and 
promised to do as he bade him. He very soon 
raised a large sum from his beggings, and a hand- 
some church was erected by the means. 



GETTING FAME. 183 

The next public matter which urged itself upon 
his attention was the condition of the streets. His 
mind was active respecting everything that con- 
cerned the great body of his fellow-citizens. The 
streets of Philadelphia were laid at right-angles, 
giving the whole city a beautiful regularity. But 
they had never been paved, and in wet weather 
were difficult to traverse with carriao-es, owino- to 
the thickness of the mud. Living himself near 
Jersey market, he had noticed with much uneasi- 
ness that the people frequenting the place, to pur- 
chase provisions, were obliged to stand in the 
mud ; but while standing or walking inside the 
market, where was a long strip of brick pavement, 
they were at once dry and comfortable. 

Seeing what accumulations were brought to the 
pavement from the street, he was led to hire a 
poor man to sweep it twice each week, sweeping 
the dirt from before the neighbors' doors likewise, 
paying him sixpence a month for each house. 
Once more he had resort to writing and printing, 
and placed in each house a paper, setting forth the 
advantages of this outside cleanliness ; and in a 
few days he went around to see how many persons 
would subscribe to an agreement to pay these six- 
pences for sweeping. The greater part of those 



184 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

called on agreed to the plan, and the pavement 
around their houses was kept so clean as to attract 
the attention of the people of the city at large. Out 
of this little manoeuvre sprang a scheme to pave 
the whole city, for which the inhabitants were 
very willing to be taxed. 

Franklin drew up a bill for that purpose, just 
before he went to England, in 1757, and introduced 
it into the Assembly. It was not passed, however, 
until after he had left, and then with alterations ; 
but one of them was a proposal to light the streets, 
as well as to pave them. The lighting was done 
by an individual, who placed a lamp above his own 
door that the people might see for themselves the 
advantage of the plan. They were at that time 
supplied with globe lamps from London ; but 
Franklin subsequently improved the form of them. 
His improvement consisted in making the lamps 
with four flat panes, with a long funnel to draw 
up the smoke, and holes at the bottom to admit 
the air for draught. They were thus kept clean, 
and continued bright till morning, not clouding 
up with smoke in a few hours like the London 
lamps; and if they were broken, only a single 
pane had to be replaced, instead of an entirely 
new lamp. 



GETTING FAME. 185 

111 this, and in other ways, Franklin made him- 
self continually useful to his fellow-citizens. He 
would see them surrounded with as many comforts 
as providence could secure ; and to that end his 
observation was always awake, and his faculties 
on the alert to second such suggestions as occurred 
to him. He looked after the streets, the pave- 
ments, the lamps, the public institutions ; the in- 
habitants felt that they had a willing servant in so 
excellent a citizen. He conducted his experiments 
in philosophy at the same time, and continually 
made advancement in his scientific studies. "What 
he had to communicate to the public through his 
newspaper was given in brief and pithy appeals, 
each of them stuffed out with an anecdote, or 
shrewdly wise saying, which moved the popular 
mind much sooner than if written in the form of 
a speech or a sermon. 'No man knew better than 
Franklin how to turn his talents and his time to 
practical account. 

He had been employed by the Postmaster-Gene- 
ral of America, for some time previous to 1753, as 
his comptroller to regulate the business of a good 
many offices, and to keep the accounts of the offi- 
cers always under his eye ; and as that officer died in 

the year just named, Franklin, along with William 
16* 



186 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Hunter, was appointed by a commission from the 
Postmaster-General of England to succeed him. 
Up to that time, the American office had never 
paid a pound of revenue into the general office of 
the parent country ; and, to pay the new appointees 
their salary, they were to he allowed six hundred 
pounds a year between them, provided the office 
would yield that amount of profits. 

To bring about a remunerative state of things, 
they w^ere obliged to resort to many expedients. 
They were forced to make improvements of every 
sort, and the first cost of the same was so great 
that they were out of pocket by it, at the end of 
the first four years, to the amount of more than 
nine hundred pounds. After that, however, the 
money began to come in ; and during the time 
Franklin administered its aflairs, it was made to 
pay three times as much revenue to the Crown as 
the post-office of Ireland. 

His business in connection with the post-office 
sent him forth on various journeys. That very 
year he travelled to l^ew England, and was honored 
with the title of Master of Arts by Harvard Uni- 
versity. But Yale College, in ^ew Haven, had 
been before Harvard with a similar merited com- 
pliment. In this way, he says, " without studying 



GETTING FAME. 187 

in any college, I came to partake of their lionors." 
They were conferred on him for his discoveries in 
electricity, and his additions to that branch of 
natural philosophy. 

His philosophical reputation took its rise from 
an accidental meeting in Boston, in the year 
1746, with a Dr. Spence from Scotland, who had 
brought over with him certain instruments with 
the design of lecturing and experimenting on 
electricity. This man was not very expert at his 
business, yet what Franklin saw was sufficient to 
surprise and delight him. iS'ot long after he re- 
turned to Philadelphia, their library association 
received a glass tube as a present from Mr. Peter 
Collinson, of London, Fellow of the Eoyal Society, 
with an account of the manner of using it for ex- 
periments of that character. Franklin eagerly 
improved the opportunity offered to repeat what 
had so pleased him, in Boston ; and after much 
practice, he was able to perform not only what he 
had seen there, but likewise those experiments of 
which accounts had been written him from Ens*- 
land, and to originate several new ones himself. 
These electric phenomena were the wonder of the 
day; his house was continually thronged with 



188 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

persons, come to see the astonishing things that 
were performed. 

Finding this a little more of a burden than he 
cared to shoulder alone, he adroitly managed to 
divide it up among others, and by this means to 
make more rapid progress with his experiments. 
He had a number of glass tubes blown at the glass 
house in Philadelphia, similar to the one sent 
them from London, and furnished them to his 
friends. The person who proved most serviceable 
to him was a neighbor named Kinnersley, who 
happened to be out of business, and whom Frank- 
lin encouraged to make exhibition of the experi- 
ments for money. He was an ingenious person 
withal, and just such an one as Avould be likely to 
spread the fame of these wonderful novelties in 
scientific discovery. Franklin wrote for him a 
couple of lectures, sketching the experiments with 
their explanations in order. He had an elegant 
apparatus constructed for himself, in which all of 
Franklin's roughly formed machines were neatly 
made by regular instrument makers. His lectures 
drew large audiences, and pleased all. He de- 
livered them in all the chief towns and cities of 
the colonies, and, as Franklin expresses it, "picked 
up some money." It was found that in the West 



GETTING FAME. 189 

India Islands, however, owing to tlie moisture of 
the atmosphere, the experiments could be made 
only with much difficulty. 

The next thing done by Franklin and his little 
knot of scientific students, was to send back word 
to England, to Mr. Collinson, who had presented 
them with the tube and an account of its use in 
producing electrical phenomena, the result thus 
far of their doings. Accordingly, Franklin wrote 
him several letters, filled with recitals of their ex- 
periments at Philadelphia. Mr. Collinson pro- 
cured them to be read before the 'Royal Society ; 
but none of the members of that I'er?/ learned body 
thought them of importance, ot even of interest, 
sufficient to merit publication in their regular 
'' Transactions." There was one paper, in particu- 
lar, that caused actual mirth among those connois- 
seurs in science : it was one which Franklin had 
drawn up for Mr. Kinnersley, his neighbor and 
the lecturer, in which he maintained that elec- 
tricity w^as the same thing with lightning. Frank- 
lin had sent a copy of it to a friend of his in Lon- 
don, who was a member of the Eoyal Society; all 
the response he was able to get respecting it was 
that it had been read before the members and 
laughed down. 



190 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

When Dr. Fothergill read these American ac- 
counts, however, he saw, as by instinct, the great 
value of them, and advised to their printing. Mr. 
Collinson then handed them to Cave, to be pub- 
lished in the Gentleman's Magazine; but it was 
thought best by him to put them forth in a distinct 
pamphlet, to which Dr. Fothergill wrote the pre- 
face. The additions which w^ere afterwards added 
to this first account swelled the pamphlet to the 
size of a quarto volume, which passed through 
many editions. 

These discoveries, however, failed to attract 
much attention in England for a long time, owing, 
no doubt, to the neglect they received at the hands 
of the Royal Society ; but a copy of the pam- 
phlet, with its additions, happened to fall into 
the hands of Count BufFon, a philosopher of 
great fame not only in France but throughout 
Europe, who prevailed on M. Dubourg to trans- 
late them into French, and to have the whole 
printed in Paris. The Abbe I^ollet was the pre- 
ceptor in natural philosophy to the royal family, 
and had made many experiments in reference to 
electricity, which were the basis of a theory then 
generally accepted. To such a person Franklin's 
startling discoveries w^ere, of course, not at all ac- 



GETTING FAME. 191 

ceptable, since tliey tended to overthrow his whole 
theory and impair his reputation with the public 
as a philosopher. He was actually offended at the 
publication of Franklin's pamphlet. He would 
not believe that any experiments of the sort had 
ever been made in America, but preferred to think 
that his enemies at Paris had fabricated these ac- 
counts on purpose to oppose his system. But 
being assured, some time afterward, that there 
really was such a j)erson at Philadelphia as Benja- 
min Franklin, and that he had made these experi- 
ments and discoveries relative to electricity, he 
wrote and printed a series of letters for the public 
eye, but ostensibly addressed to Franklin^ in which 
he defended his own theory of electricity, denied 
the truth of Franklin's experiments, and scouted 
the inferences Avhich the latter drew from them. 

Franklin at one time thought of writing and 
publishing a reply to this volume of the Abbe's ; 
but, on reflection, it occurred to him that, at best, 
it would be but a war of words, while iliQ facts, as 
set down in his pamphlet, would speak for them- 
selves. If these facts could not be verified, on one 
side of the Atlantic as well as the other, then they 
could not be defended; the only way would be, 
to keep on multiplying the facts, and let them 



192 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

make their own way. Besides, even having the 
advantage of truth on his side, he felt sure that a 
controversy carried on in two different languages 
was liable to much looseness, and the chances 
therefore were that it would end in dissatisfaction 
to themselves and disgust to the public. He went 
on with his experiments, therefore, instead of 
spending his time in unprofitable discussion, and 
in this respect proved the wisdom of which he was 
reall}^ possessed. 

His silence never caused him regret. It was not 
necessary for him to defend his book, or to come 
to the rescue of his facts. The volume was soon 
translated into the Italian, German, and Latin 
languages, and its doctrines were gradual!}^ adopted 
by the philosophers of Europe, in preference to 
those held by the Abbe Collet. M. Le Eoy, a 
friend of Franklin, and a member of the Royal 
Acad'emy of Sciences, of France, took up the pen 
in defence of the new discoveries and theories 
of the latter, completely refuting the Abbe, and 
rendering any further attention at Franklin's 
hands unnecessary. 

There was one thing that helped to bring the 
book of Franklin into immediate notice, and to 
give it even celebrity ; that was the brilliant sue- 



GETTING FAME. 193 

cess of one of the experiments wliicli were set 
down in it, which was tried by Messieurs De Lor 
and Dalibard, at Marly, for drawing down light- 
ning from the clouds. So bold an experiment, 
and one unheard of before^ challenged the pro- 
foundest curiosity of scientific men and excited 
the unbounded admiration of all who heard of it. 
IlTothing was talked of, at the time, but this one 
absorbing matter. M. De Lor likewise had an 
apparatus for trying philosophical experiments, 
and was in the habit of lecturing. In his lectures 
on Electricity, he undertook to repeat what then 
went by the name of the " Philadelphia Experi- 
ments." When once they had been performed in 
the presence of the French King and his Court, 
all Paris flocked afterwards to witness them. 

The experiment of drawing down the lightnings 
from the heavens, which was to demonstrate that 
they and electricity were one and the same sub- 
stance, it was ordained that Franklin should make, 
with the simple means which were at his command ; 
and the story of it belongs in this very place. He 
had gone far enough to be assured that in many 
points they closely resembled one another; one 
final test only remained to be made. 

What attracts us more than all to his character? 
17 



194 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

too, ill spite of what flippant modern writers say 
of his penurious maxims and saving habits, is the 
perfect openness of it, lying exposed, as it did, to 
the advantage or the criticism of aU. He kept no 
part of it selfishly in reserve. While he was con- 
ducting the great experiment to which we allude, 
he never sought to shut out the light that had 
already reached him from the eyes of other in- 
quirers, but published his ideas as fast as they 
occurred to him, and freely invited all other 
students of philosophy to pursue the same object 
with himself. 

His original plan for drawing the electric fluid 
from the clouds was by raising insulated bars of 
iron to great heights in the air. On this hint, the 
experimenters in England and France practised 
with metallic bars, but nothing decisive came of 
it. At length the true mode occurred to him. 
Like all of the grand discoveries of the age, it 
was effected through the simplest means. He 
made a kite of silk, choosing that rather than 
paper because the rain would not harm, it, to which 
he fixed a slender barb, or point, of iron. The 
string by which the kite was held was also of silk, 
and at the end of the string, just below his hand, 
hung a key. 



GETTING FAME. 195 

With SO simple an instrument as this, he went 
out into the suburbs of Philadelphia one day when 
a thunder storm was coming over the town, and 
set his kite flying toward the clouds. AVliat great 
results, in the line of discoveries, hung on that 
single little experiment! The lightning in the 
clouds soon caught his point of iron at the head 
of the kite, and, traversing the kite, found its 
swift way along the rudely constructed silken 
string. He could himself see that the fibres of 
silk were raised by the subtle contact. [N'ow came 
the moment of his great anxiety and his triumph. 
Applying his knuckle to the key which hung from 
the end of the string, he drew from it a living 
spark ! Again and again he did so, and each time 
with similar success. He then charged a vial 
which he had at hand with the fluid, drawing it 
from the clouds through the key, and found it 
would explode gunpowder, set spirits of wine on 
fire, and perform all other tricks which were per- 
formed by electricity itself. 

The experiment w^as a success. The printer- 
philosopher had made a discovery from which 
consequences of the most important character 
were to be secured to the human family. His 



196 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



pleasure it is no part of our task to attempt to 
describe. 

To this account of his great experiment with 
the kite should he added a recital of some of the 
various little electrical amusements with which he 
relaxed his mind in the intervals of his severer 
studies, and entertained the friends who were in 
the habit of frequenting his house. One of these 
was "the Magic Pistol," an instrument which he 
charged with inj&ammable air, stopped with a cork, 
and fired by means of a charged rod near the 
pistol's mouth. On drawing the rod, the electric 
spark flew in, and the inflammable air was set on 
fire. Out went the cork with a sharp report, 
hitting any object against which it might be aimed. 

Another was a set of toys, composed of little 
dogs made of elder pith, with straw feet and tails. 
He would place these little fellows upon the table, 
and, taking a large tumbler, or receiver, which 
had been charged with the fluid, clapped it sud- 
denly over them. Upon this they all began to 
dance and skip about, and to make attempts to 
run up the sides of the glass, as if to get out. 
These Franklin used to call his "dancing dogs." 

Still another was a plate of tin, cut into the 
form of a star, and secure to the end of a prime 



GETTING FAME. 197 

conductor. On putting out the candles, and 
making a turn or two of the jar, the fluid danced 
and shimmered at all the angles of the cut tin- 
plate, and made a light as beautiful as it is possible 
to conceive. He called this toy "the electric 
star." 

Another was more ingenious than the foregoing, 
and intended to illustrate a w^ell-known Scripture 
story. He had a large picture of a man dressed in 
purple and fine linen, and behind it stood concealed 
an electrical jar. A little way off was a small 
brass pillar, and by it lay a ragged beggar. Sus- 
pended from the ceiling, and reaching down to 
the table on which stood the jar, was the picture 
of a boy, beautiful, and of an angelic expression. 
The picture of the man who was dressed in purple 
and fine linen he called Dives ; while that of the 
beautiful boy he named the Son of Dives ; the 
poor man reclining at the base of the post he called 
Lazarus. His trick was to make Dives, who had 
in his imaginary lifetime refused to help Lazarus, 
now administer comfort and aid to him throuorh 
his son. Li order to do this, he charged the con- 
cealed jar with electricity. This drew the youth 
to it, who, on being charged Avith the fluid, flew 
in great haste to the brass pillar at the foot of which 
17* 



198 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

lay Lazarus, and there cliscliarged his whole burden. 
On being thus relieved, he once more hastened 
back to the jar behind Dives, — although to the 
spectator he only appeared to approach Dives 
himself, — where he got his second load, which he 
emptied at the feet of Lazarus as before. After 
he had equalized the quantity of electric, fluid 
between them, by thus taking from one and giving 
to the other, he rested satisfied. This toy he 
named "Dives and Lazarus." 

The Royal Society of London by this time took 
lip the serious consideration of the letters he had 
some time before sent over to them, but which 
had been until then superciliously neglected. They 
felt obliged to do so from very shame, in order to 
keep abreast with the new discoveries; the Paris 
Society had received and considered them with 
enthusiasm, and its London associate was forced 
to do what it had so long and so ignorantly refused 
to do. 

They paid Franklin the compliment of choosing 
him a member; excused him from paying the 
customary fees ; and presented him with the Cop- 
ley gold medal for 1753, which was accompanied 
with a highly complimentary speech by the Presi- 
dent of the Society, Lord Macclesfield. 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 199 



CHAPTER IX. 



AS A MILITARY MAN, 



THE lords of trade in the mother country 
sent over orders, in 1754, that a Congress of 
Commissioners from the several colonies 
should be held at Albany, to confer with the chiefs 
of the Six Nations, Indian tribes in central and 
western New York, about the defence of the 
country of both peoples against the expected in- 
vasion of France. War with France was just 
then apprehended by Great Britain, which after- 
wards did break out, and became a protracted 
contest on this side of the Atlantic for the posses- 
sion of the continent. It lasted some seven years, 
and is known in history as the old French and 
Indian War. 

The Governor of Pennsylvania named four per- 
sons to constitute the commission for that colony, 
among whom was Benjamin Franklin. They took 
with them presents for the Indians, and met with 



200 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the commissioners from the other colonies, at 
Albany, about the middle of June. They stopped 
in Xew York on their way to Albany, and Frank- 
lin laid before two gentlemen of wide experience 
in public affairs in that city — Mr. James Alexander 
and Mr. Kennedy, — a plan which he had devised 
for an Union of all the colonies under one government, 
for the common defence and other purposes. This 
was, in fact, the quiet suggestion which proved the 
forerunner of the great federative movement made 
twenty years later. It seemed as if there then lay 
in Franklin's brain the germ of the scheme which 
was to secure the independence of the colonies. 

On reaching Albany, his plan for an union having 
met the approbation of the two gentlemen named, 
he lost no time in presenting it to the Congress. 
He found that other commissioners had likewise 
projected plans of a similar character. The first 
step taken, therefore, was to put it to a vote 
whether such an union should be formed ; and it 
was decided in the affirmative w^ithout a dissenting 
vote. Upon this, a committee of one from each 
colony was raised, to consider the several plans 
which were brought in, and duly report upon 
them. The committee gave Franklin's plan the 
preference over the others, and reported it back to 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 201 

tlie Congress with a few amendments. As this 
plan of union is become an important matter in 
our h.istoiy as a nation, room may be claimed here 
for a statement of its features, and its history. 

In the first place, the general government of the 
colonies thus united was to be administered by a 
President-General, who should receive his appoint- 
ment and support from England. !N'ext, a grand 
Council was to be elected by the colonial assem- 
blies, which were the direct representatives of the 
people. The Congress took it up and debated it, 
at the same time that the Indian business was 
under discussion. All the objections possible to 
raise against it were brought up, discussed, and 
finally removed; and at length the scheme was 
adopted by the body of commissioners, and copies 
of it were ordered to be sent to the Board of 
Trade in London, as well as to the Assemblies of 
the various colonies. 

The assemblies refused to adopt it, because they 
thought it gave too much power over colonial affairs 
to the crown ; while the English government re- 
fused its sanction to the measure, because it deemed 
the scheme much too democratic, leaving more power 
in the hands of the people of the colonies than was 
consistent with the supreme control of the mother 



202 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

government. It was not adopted by the Board of 
Trade, nor did that body recommend it to the favor 
of the king. But in place of it, they projected 
another scheme, which they professed to believe a 
much better one. It was as follows : — that the 
Governors of the provinces, together with a stated 
number of members of their Councils, should 
meet whenever they thought best, and order troops 
to be raised, forts to be built, and draw on the 
treasury of Great Britain for money to defray the 
expense ; and the money thus draAvn from the 
English treasury was to be paid back again by a 
tax laid by Parliament on the American provinces. 
In the winter of 1754-5, Franklin was in Boston, 
and exchanged views often with Governor Shirley 
on the plans both of the Congress and of Great 
Britain. The letters which passed between them 
form a part of the most interesting history of that 
important period. Franklin was always inclined 
to believe that his proposed plan was the safe and 
proper one, because it was so strongly liked and 
opposed. He thought it would have been better 
for the country if it had then been adopted; for 
the colonies, united in this way, would have been 
strong enough to take care of themselves ; there 
would have been no need of bringing over troops 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 203 

from England; and, in that wa}^, the pretext 
which was afterwards raised in Great Britain for 
taxing the colonies could never have existed, — 
and the long and weary war which ensued in con- 
sequence of the tax, would have been wholly 
avoided. But, says Franklin, moralizing on this 
point, 'Hhe best public measures are seldom 
adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the 
occasion." The plan of union, as proposed by 
Franklin, met with the approbation of the Governor 
of Pennsylvania, however, who spoke of it "as 
appearing to be drawn up with great clearness and 
strength of judgment;" and he recommended it 
to the Assembly " as well worthy of their closest 
and most serious attention." But in Franklin's 
absence, it was unfairly brought up by a member, 
who, by artful management, procured it to be con- 
demned by the House. 

Stopping in ^N'ew York on his way to Boston, he 
met there the newly appointed Pennsylvania 
Governor, just come over from Europe, — Governor 
Morris, with whom he had had a previous familiar 
acquaintance. Governor Hamilton had resigned 
his office, tired of the disputes that were set agoing 
by his instructions from the Proprietors, who re- 
sided in England. Governor Morris asked Frank- 



204 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

I'm if he might anticipate for himself as unquiet 
and troublesome an administration. "Ko," said 
the latter; "you may, on the contrary, have a 
very comfortable one, if you will only take care 
not to enter into any dispute with the Assembly." 
" My dear friend," was the reply of Morris, "how 
can you advise my avoiding disputes ? You know 
I love disputing ; it is one of my greatest pleasures. 
However, to show the regard I have for your 
counsel, I promise you I will, if possible, avoid 
them." And on this general practice of disputa- 
tion, let us here quote the Avords of so wise a man 
as Dr. Franklin. He says that Morris " had some 
reason for loving to dispute, being eloquent, an 
acute sophister, and therefore generally successful 
in argumentative conversation. He had been 
brought up to it from a boy, his father, as I have 
heard, accustoming his children to dispute with 
one another for his diversion while sitting at table 
after dinner; but I think the practice was not 
wise, for, in the course of my observation, those 
disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are 
generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get 
victory sometimes, but they never get good will, 
which would be of more use to them." 

Gov. Morris soon got into disputes with the As- 



AS A MILITARY MAX, 205 

sembly, however, in spite of his promises to Frank- 
lin. The hitter heard of it, as soon as he reached 
iSTew York on his way home. After he got back, 
he took his own seat in the Assembly, and was 
straightway placed on every committee which was 
appointed for drawing np replies to the Governor's 
messages and speeches. Both the messages and 
the replies were, as Franklin confesses, "often 
tart, and sometimes indecently abusive ;'' and inas- 
much as the Governor knew very well who drew 
them up, it would have been natural to expect 
that when they met they would have flown at one 
another's throats. Such was by no means the 
case, however ; on the contrary, they often dined 
together. The Governor was personally one of 
the best natured of men. 

While this public quarrel was at its height, they 
met one day in the street. Said the Governor — 
" Franklin, you must go home with me and spend 
the evening ; I am to have some company that you 
will like." And he took him by the arm, and led 
him to his house. Over their wine, after supper, 
while indulging in a strain of frolicsome talk, the 
Governor said that he was much taken with Sancho 
Panza's idea, who replied, when he was told that 

a government was about to be given to him, that 
18 



206 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

lie hoped it would be a government of blacks ; 
for then, if he could not agree with his people, he 
could sell them. One of the Governor's friends, 
who sat next Franklin at the table, said to him — 
*' Franklin, wdiy do you continue to side with those 
damned Quakers ? Had jou not better sell them ? 
the Proprietor Avould give you a good price." 
Franklin replied — "The Governor has not yet 
blacked them enough." And the latter went on to 
comment, that he had indeed labored hard to 
blacken the Assembly in all his messages, but 
they wiped off his coloring as fast as he laid it on, 
and placed it thick on his own face, in return; so 
that, finding he was in a way of being negrofied 
himself, he grew sick of his government and 
quitted the province. 

]^ow that war was really at their doors, the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony projected an expedi- 
tion against Crown Point ; and in order to secure 
aid and co-operation, they sent Mr. Quincy to 
Pennsylvania, and Mr. Pownall, who was after- 
ward Governor, to IN'ew York. Franklin being 
in the Assembly, and being a native of the same 
colony with Mr. Quincy, he was able to do a good 
deal for him. The latter applied to him at once 
for advice and assistance. Franklin helped him 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 207 

to draw up an address to the Assembly, and it was 
well received by that body. They voted ten thou- 
sand pounds in aid of the expedition, the money to 
be laid out in provisions. But the Governor re- 
fused his signature to the bill, unless the estates 
of the Proprietaries were exempted from taxation. 
This Proprietary interest and influence will be ex- 
plained shortly. Mr. Quincy tried hard to induce 
the Governor to assent to the bill, but to no pur- 
pose. Franklin then devised a plan for getting 
along without him ; which was, by orders on the 
Loan Office, which the Assembly had a legal right 
to draw. Just then, there happened to be no 
money in the office; and Franklin proposed that 
the orders should be payable in a year, at -^ve per 
cent, interest. 

This was at once adopted by the Assembly. 
These orders were very rapidly taken up by per- 
sons having money to invest ; for their money was 
at once put upon interest; and the printed orders 
which they held were as readily passed from hand 
to hand as if they had been bank notes. And so 
the aid for which Mr. Quincy had come from Mas- 
sachusetts was all rendered at last, and he went 
back with a heart full of joy to his own people. 
Before going, however, he returned thanks to the 



208 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

House in a handsomely written address. He ever 
after entertained for Franklin the sincerest friend- 
ship. 

War having broken out, and Great Britain hav- 
ino; refused to countenance the union of the colo- 
nies, of course the -government was obliged to send 
over here the troops which it would not permit 
the colonies to raise among themselves. The 
famous General Braddock was therefore shipped 
to America, with a couple of regiments of English 
troops. He landed at Alexandria, in Virginia, 
and marched with his force from that place to 
Fredericktown, in Maryland. Both places have 
become very well known to all readers since the 
war of the Great Rebellion, in this country. The 
Pennsylvania Assembly feared that he, or his mas- 
ters, had conceived a strong prejudice against 
them, and sent off Franklin to meet and confer 
with him ; not as an authorized agent of theirs, 
but rather as Postmaster-General of the colonies, 
professing to desire an arrangement with him for 
the best mode of sending intelligence from the 
army to the several Governors with the greatest 
despatch. Franklin was to assume that he would 
require to have a correspondence with them, and 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 209 

the expense of it they of course proposed to pay 
themselves. 

He set out, therefore, with his son in company, 
and met General Braddock at Fredericktown, 
waiting for the wagons to come in for which he 
had sent around among the settlers in the hack 
parts of Maryland and Virginia. He was with 
the General several days ; dined with him ; and 
improved the time to remove his prejudices hy 
acquainting him with what the Assembly had done 
before he and his troops arrived, and what they 
were still willing to do to advance his plans. Just 
as Franklin was about to depart, the wagons came 
in to headquarters. There were but twenty-five 
of them in all, and not every one of those was 
worth anything for his purpose. So great was the 
General's astonishment, he declared that nothino- 
could be done, and that the expedition would have 
to be abandoned. His officers were of the same 
opinion. They could not get along with less than 
one hundred and fifty wagons ; and it was very 
natural for them to blame their government for 
sending them into a country where no transporta- 
tion was provided them. 

Franklin said to the officers that he wished they 

had been landed in Pennsylvania, because in that 
18* 



210 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

countrj nearly every farmer had liis wagon. Brad- 
dock seized liold of the suggestion at once. '^ Then 
you," said he to Franklin, "who are a man of in- 
fluence there, can probably procure them for us ; 
and I beg you will undertake it." The terms were 
talked of between them. Franklin stated them 
on paper. They were at once agreed to. He 
posted to Lancaster, and published them there as 
an advertisement. The effect was direct. In this 
advertisement, he told the people that one hun- 
dred and fifty four-horse wagons, and fifteen hun- 
dred saddle, or pack, horses were wanted ; and 
that he should be at Lancaster and York for 
stated periods, to agree with them for said wagons 
and teams, on terms which he announced, — the 
wagons to earn so many shillings per day, the 
horses so many, and the pay for seven days to be 
given in advance. 

Thus was Franklin become an army contractor. 
He authorized his son "William to enter into simi- 
lar contracts in an adjoining county. 

In addition to this advertisement, he issued to 
the inhabitants of York, Lancaster, and Cumber- 
land an address, setting forth the condition of 
affairs with the army at Frederick, informing them 
that it had been the intention of Gen. Braddock 



AS A MILITARY MAN". 211 

to send out parties of soldiers to take from the far- 
mers by force the wagons and horses which were 
wanted, and appealing to them by every considera- 
tion to come forward and show their loyalty for 
their own government and country. " The King's 
business," said he, "must be done. So many 
brave troops, come so far for your defence, must 
not stand idle through your backwardness to 
do what may be reasonably expected from you. 
Wagons and horses must be had. Violent mea- 
sures will probably be used ; and you will be left 
to seek a recompense where you can find it, and 
your case, perhaps, be little pitied or regarded." 
He further told them that he was obliged to send 
the General word of his success within fourteen 
days ; and if they did not come promptty to the 
rescue, a body of soldiers would immediately enter 
the province to go about the work of impress- 
ment. 

He received eight hundred pounds of General 
Braddock to make purchases with, and advanced 
two hundred himself; and in two weeks, wagons 
and horses were on their way to the camp. The 
farmers, knowing nothing of Gen. Braddock, in- 
sisted that Franklin should sign the bonds for 
the performance of the contract; which he did. 



212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin likewise got up a subscription in the As- 
sembly for the officers in this expedition through 
the wilderness, and furnished them with twenty 
parcels of comforts, which were packed upon as 
many horses, each parcel being intended as a pre- 
sent for every officer, and containing a stated 
quantity of sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, vinegar, 
cheese, butter, wine, spirits, hams, tongue, and so 
forth. They felt very grateful to him, and the 
Colonels of both regiments expressed to him the 
thanks of the officers under them. Gen. Braddock 
was also pleased w^ith Franklin's prompt agency 
in getting him wagons, and paid his accounts with- 
out delay. Franklin was busily employed in for- 
warding supplies to his army, according to request, 
until the news came of his most unexpected de- 
feat ; at that time he had advanced of his own 
money, for provisions, fully a thousand pounds. 
Luckily, as he admits, the bills were paid before 
the disaster, with the exception of a small remain- 
der; that he never got. 

Franklin thought Braddock a brave man, as 
did every one who knew him ; but he held too 
high notions about the valor of British regulars 
on the one hand, and too mean ones of Americans 
and Indians on the other. An Indian interpreter 



AS A MILITARY MAX. 213 

joined him on Ins march against Fort Duquesnc, 
with a body of a hundred Indians, who might 
have been of great use to him as guides and scouts ; 
but he paid but httle attention to them, thinking 
their services of no vahie, and they quietly left 
him and his army to their fate. He told Franklin, 
one day, what he intended to do, as confident in 
his feelings as if he could walk over the continent 
unmolested. Said he, '^ after taking Fort Du- 
quesne, I am to proceed to Magara ; and, having 
taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will allow 
time, and I suppose it will; for Duquesne can 
hardly detain me above three or four days ; and 
then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to 
^Niagara." Franklin was not so sanguine ; and 
pointed out to him the danger to be apprehended 
from ambuscades in the wilderness, and the lia- 
bility to his long column of being cut into many 
parts by the Indians before one part could come 
to the relief of the other. But Braddock smiled 
atFranklin's ignorance, answering him that ''these 
savages might strike dread in the hearts of the 
American militia, but never would move the dis- 
ciplined troops of Britain.'' How dearly he paid 
for his boasting ! Franklin was sure of his own 
opinion, yet did not feel qualified to combat that of 



214 BEXJAMIM FRANKLIN. 

an experienced military man ; so lie said nothing 
more. 

The story of Braddock's expedition against 
Fort Duqiiesne must be told here in few words. 
He had pushed on through the wilderness, his 
troops cutting their narrow roads in some places 
as they w^ent, until they came within about nine 
miles of the place. A part of the army had crossed 
a river, and waited until the other part came over ; 
this brought them all in one body, and in an open 
place in the wilderness : and then the enemy 
opened on them w^ith a murderous fire from an 
ambuscade, every bush, tree, log, and rock con- 
cealing an unerring marksman. Until this deadly 
fire was opened, General Braddock had no idea 
that the fde were any^vhere near him. 

The guard was instantly throw^n into disorder, 
and the troops were hurried forward to their relief, 
making their way precipitately among the crowded 
wagons, baggage, and horses. Then a fire as sud- 
denly broke forth upon their flank. The ofiicers 
formed very conspicuous marks for the fire of the 
secreted foe, because they were on horseback ; and 
they fell to the ground as fast as they could be 
sighted by the enemy. The troops were huddled 
together in a body, and heard no orders from 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 215 

their officers ; all tliey did, therefore, was to stand 
still and be shot down. In this way, fully two- 
thirds of them were slaughtered. They after, 
wards — what w^ere left of them — were struck with 
a panic, and fled in great terror. The drivers took 
a horse apiece from their teams, mounted, and 
rode hastily away; and thus all the wagons, 
artillery, stores, and provisions were left behind 
for the enemy. 

General Braddock was wounded, and brought 
away after much trouble and risk. His secretary 
was killed at his side; and out of eighty-six 
officers sixty-three were killed and Avounded. Out 
of the eleven hundred men who had been picked 
from the whole army and sent forward,— the re- 
mainder having been left behind to follow with 
the heavier portion of the stores, provisions, and 
baggage,— seven hundred and fourteen were killed ! 
The survivors fled back to the camp, and commu- 
nicating the panic, hastened along until they 
reached the towns and cities of the settlements 
again. The enemy did not all together exceed 
four hundred, of French and Indians ; yet the 
whole body of the English troops fled in affright, 
though they numbered over a thousand. They 
ought to have hurried back, and tried to recover 



216 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

their lost advantages ; instead of that, all the re- 
maining stores were destroyed by them where they 
were, and the troops went on, in spite of the re- 
quests of the Governors of Maryland, Virginia, 
and Pennsylvania that they should post themselves 
on the frontiers, not resting until the officers 
arrived safely in Philadelphia. The Americans 
had a much smaller opinion of the British regulars, 
after that, than even the regulars had of them. 

General Braddock, after being brought off the 
field, was entirely silent the first day, and did not 
speak until night; then he said — ""Who would 
have thought it?" All the next day, too, he was 
speechless ; and at the last he merely said — " We 
shall know how to deal with them another time," — 
and died a few minutes after. 

The owners of the wagons and horses, as soon 
as it was known that all were lost, came upon 
Franklin for their value, although the same were 
only hired, not bought, for the use of the army. 
He had a good deal of trouble with them, and was 
much perplexed with lawsuits. Commissioners 
were, after a time, appointed to examine the 
accounts, and to pay them. Had Franklin 
been forced to pay them, it would have ruined 
him. 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 217 

Some persons in Philadelphia tried to get up a 
plan for a grand display of fireworks, to be let off 
as soon as the capture of Fort Duquesne should be 
made known. Franklin dissuaded them from it, 
for reasons which he gave them, and saved them 
from much mortification. 

Franklin was very active, at this time and sub- 
sequently, in organizing a volunteer militia, and 
had carried a bill in aid of the measure through 
the House, leaving the Quakers at liberty to enlist 
or not. He wrote an imaginary dialogue on the 
matter, bringing forward all the objections he 
could to the measure, and answering them 
again. 

The Governor, Morris, prevailed on him to take 
charge of the northwest frontier, where the enemy 
swarmed in great numbers, and to construct a line 
of forts there, and raise a sufficient number of 
troops. He soon got together between five and 
six hundred men. His son was his aid-de-camp, 
who had served in the preceding war against 
Canada, and by his experience in the field was of 
great use to his father. The Indians had burned 
a Moravian village, called Guadenhutten, and 
slaughtered all the inhabitants ; but as it was 
thought to be a good place for erecting one of his» 
19 



218 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

forts, lie assembled liis companies at Bethlehem, 
which was the chief settlement of the Moravians, 
designing to march thither. The people of that 
village were all in arms, and ready for the Indians. 
They helped Franklin in getting off his expe- 
dition, supplying him with wagons, stores, and 
■cattle. 

He divided his force into three parts, sending 
one to the upper, and another to the lower waters 
of the Minisink, while he went himself with the 
third to Guadenhutten. He had marched but a 
few miles, when a rain set in. There were no 
houses for a long distance, and they found no 
shelter until they came to the barn of a German 
farmer, into which they all huddled, tired and 
thoroughly wet. They could not have defended 
themselves with any effectiveness had they been 
attacked; for their guns were good for but little, 
and the men could not keep the locks dry, either. 
A party of eleven farmers who had borrowed guns 
of them to go back and recover cattle which the 
Indians had stolen, were killed with one excejD- 
tion. The one who escaped came back and told 
that they could not fire off their guns, because the 
priming was wet. 

They reached Guadenhutten the next day, and 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 219 

constructed a hut for shelter, the first thing. They 
did not carry tents, as troops on the march do 
now. They next buried the dead farmers, their 
bodies not having been properly interred by the 
frightened people of the settlement. On the next 
morning the fort was planned and marked out. 
It was to be four hundred and fifty-five feet in 
circumference, and defended with palisades, each 
a foot in diameter. The men fell to chopping 
trees for this purpose with great zeal. A pine 
of fourteen inches in diameter two men would fell 
in six minutes. A trench was dug all around the 
fort, three feet deep, into which the palisades were 
planted. They took the wagon-bodies from the 
wheels, and used the latter to draw the palisades 
from the woods ; each wagon thus furnishing four 
wheels, they had twice as many carriages as they 
otherwise would. 

The palisades were set up strongly, and a plat- 
form erected all around them for the garrison to 
stand upon and fire at the Indians through the 
loop-holes. A swivel was mounted, which they 
discharged forthwith, to let the savages know what 
they might expect if they came too near. The 
fort was completed in a week, although it rained 
hard every other day. The men were kept so close 



220 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

at work, they had no time to be discontented. 
This reminded Franklin of an old sea captain, who 
gave orders, when his hands were out of work, 
that they should scour the anchor. 

By-and-bye, they took courage from seeing no 
Indians, and made excursions for some distance 
outside. They found where the Indians had con- 
cealed themselves to watch their proceedings, on 
the neighboring hills. Franklin speaks of the 
ingenuity of the Indians in building their fires so 
as to keep their feet warm, yet so as not to betray 
themselves to the people in the fort. 

His chaplain complained to him that the men 
could not be made to attend prayers daily. As a 
gill of rum was furnished them with their regular 
rations, Franklin advised him to give out that the 
rum would be distributed right after prayers. He 
acted on the advice, and had no more trouble with 
inattention to worship. Hardly had Franklin got 
the fort stored with provisions when the Governor 
summoned him home to attend a session of the 
Assembly. His friends also wrote pressing letters 
for his return. He had completed three forts, and, 
as the people of the region were contented to re- 
main on their farms under protection of these 
forts, he resolved to return. Colonel Clapham, of 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 221. 

ITew England, took command, and Franklin gave 
him a commission. The soldiers escorted him 
back as far as Bethlehem, where he slept in a bed 
for the first time since he had been gone. He said 
he could hardly go to sleep, the first night, it was 
so different from his hard lodging on the floor of a 
hut, with only a blanket or two. He made many 
inquiries about the customs of the Moravians, 
during the few days he stayed at Bethlehem, 
showing that his active mind was ever awake to 
the acquisition of knowledge. 

When he got back to Philadelphia, he found 
the volunteer soldiery movement going on as well 
as he could have wished. The oflicers of the 
several companies met and elected Franklin their 
Colonel, which office he accepted, this time. Thus 
he became, for a brief period. Colonel Franklin. 
He was at the head of about twelve hundred men, 
including a company of artillerymen with six brass 
field pieces ; they had become so expert as to be 
able to fire them at the rate of twelve times a 
minute. When Colonel Franklin reviewed his 
regiment for the first time, they marched with him 
to the door of his house, and insisted on firing a 
salute in his honor. The discharges knocked 
down several pieces of his delicate electrical appa- 
19* 



222 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ratus; and he moralized, upon this occurrence, 
that his newly found honors were scarcely less 
brittle. He had occasion to make a journey into 
Virginia, soon after, and the officers of his regi- 
ment took it into their heads that it would be a 
good idea to escort their Colonel out of town. 
Thirty or foi-ty of them, in uniform and on horse- 
back, rode up to his door just as he was about 
getting upon his own horse, astonishing him with 
their appearance. He felt a little ''flat" when he 
saw what they would do, but could not stop them. 
Some busybody w^rote an account of it to the 
Proprietor, who felt exceedingly wroth over it, 
declaring that no such honor had ever been paid 
to himself while in the province, nor even to the 
Governor ; and that it was due to no less a person 
than the prince royal. A great deal of bad blood 
was excited against Franklin in the heart of the 
Proprietor, who brought charges against him 
before the ministry, and, among them, that he 
alone stood in the way of the king's service in 
Pennsylvania. He likewise tried to influence 
the Postmaster-General to deprive him of his 
office. 

The Governor seriously proposed to Franklin 
that he should set out with a second expedition 



AS A MILITARY MAN. 223 

against Fort Duquesne, after Braddock's defeat, 
and would have commissioned liim a General ; but 
Franklin had a poor opinion of his own military 
abilities, and did not accept an offer with which 
so many men would feel flattered. He thought 
he knew better of his own capacities than the 
Governor could know for him. 



224 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER X. 

FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 

WHEN" Governor Denny, the new Gov- 
ernor, came over from England, lie 
brought with him the medal which the 
Royal Society had voted to present Franklin, and 
bestowed it on him at a public entertainment 
which the city gave the Governor by way of wel- 
come. He told Franklin in private that he had 
been urged in London to make his acquaintance 
on his arrival, and to seek his advice. And he had 
much to say to him about cultivating harmony 
between the Proprietor and the Province, hoping 
that all former disputes with the Assembly would 
be dropped, and that he would readily lend his 
own influence to that end. They had this private 
talk in another room, while the company were at 
the table ; and as they remained a long time, some 
of those present sent out to them a decanter of 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 225 

Madeira, which Franklin said the Governor par- 
took liberally of, and piled up promises and 
joledges as fast as he tossed off bumpers of the 
wine. 

Franklin made answer to his proposals in a spirit 
of perfect independence; telling him that his 
means placed him above the necessity of depend- 
ing on the favors of proprietaries, and that, as a 
member of the Assembly, he could not accept any 
such; that he never need fear his opposition to 
his measures, provided they were calculated to 
benefit the people; and that he thanked the 
Grovernor for his expressions of regard for him, 
and would do as much as he could to make his 
administration easy, if he did not bring over with 
him instructions similar to the odious ones of his 
predecessor. 

On the assemblage of the Legislature, however, 
owing to the Governor's instructions which he had 
brought with him from England, a war broke out 
between him and that body without much delay ; 
and Franklin took an active part in the opposition, 
as he had done before. Still the Governor and he 
had no quarrel personally. They often went to- 
gether, and, as he was both a man of letters and 
a man of the world, his conversation was pleasing 



226 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and instructive. Among other items of intelli- 
gence wliich lie brought to Franklin, he told him 
that his old friend Ealph was still living, and that 
he was then considered one of the best political 
writers in England; he had taken part in the dis- 
pute between Prince Frederick and the king, and 
enjoyed a pension of three hundred pounds a year. 
His fame as a poet, however, was small, and Pope 
had ridiculed him in the Dunciad ; but his prose 
was as good as any man's. 

At this point of time, Franklin appears as the 
colonial agent — first of Pennsylvania, and after- 
wards of other colonies, — in England. It was a 
work that engrossed many of the best years of his 
life, giving him opportunities for employing his 
natural talents for diplomacy to the best advantage. 
All his previous life was but a preparation for this 
which was to come. He had amassed what might 
be thought a sufficient fortune, and his fame as a 
philosopher and discoverer had gone before him 
over Europe. His experience as a legislator was 
calculated to stand him in good stead before the 
parliaments of the old world ; while his minute 
knowledge of colonial affairs, of the conduct and 
character of the Indians on the frontier, and of the 
real ability of the men of his own country as 



FIRST FIVE YEAES IN EUROPE. 227 

material for war, was of the first consequence to 
him in the turmoil of the events he was sum- 
moned to pass through. 

Owing to the continued troubles between the 
Assembly and the proprietaries, and the persist- 
ency with which the latter sought to cripple the 
free action of the people of the province in all 
matters, the latter determined to petition the king 
directly against their would-be tyrants, and ap- 
pointed Franklin their agent to go to England to 
present the petition. It appears that the House 
had passed a bill, and sent it to the Governor for 
his signature, granting sixty thousand pounds for 
the king's use, and ten thousand of it subject to 
the orders of Lord Loudoun, then General. The 
Governor refused absolutely to let the bill become 
a law. 

Franklin engaged his passage to London with 
Captain Morris, who sailed a packet out of 'New 
York, and sent all his stores for the passage on 
board. A sea voyage was a very different affair, 
it need not be said, from what it is now. Just as he 
was leaving, Lord Loudoun arrived in Philadel- 
phia, on purpose to try and bring about a recon- 
ciliation between the Assembly and the Governor, 
so that Ilis Majesty's service might not suffer 



228 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

harm from their differences. He made an appoint- 
ment for the Governor and himself to meet him 
on the subject. They came together, and went 
over the merits of the case. Franklin urged the 
side he had always taken before the Assembly; 
while the Governor argued for the binding cha- 
racter of his instructions, and showed that his 
ruin would follow their disobedience; yet he 
showed that he viiglit consent to disregard them 
if he could but receive orders to that effect from 
Lord Loudoun. The latter, however, scarcely 
dared give his consent, and he finally went so far 
over to the views of the Governor as to tell 
Franklin that he would better use all his influence 
with the Assembly to provide for the defence of 
the frontier themselves, for, as for himself, he 
would not consent to spare a single one of the 
king's troops for that purpose. 

The matter was soon after arranged by Franklin 
between the Assembly and the Governor, and he 
proceeded on his voyage. But, on arriving in I^ew 
York, he found that the packet on which he was 
to go had sailed with all his stores. He thus lost 
these, receiving in return nothing but the thanks 
of Loudoun, while the latter took all the credit of 
the compromise to himself. 



rmST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 229 

Franklin found that Lord Loudoun had gone 
on to Kew York before him. He, of course, had 
control over the sailing of the packets, since he 
was to send dispatches by them to his government. 
There were two vessels then in port, one of which 
he said would sail very soon. Franklin wished 
him to name the day, so that he might lose as 
little time as need be. His lordship told him she 
would sail the Saturday following; but he added, 
confidentially, that if he should be on board by 
the Monday morning following, it would be time 
enough. Franklin was hindered by the ferry, and 
did not reach the vessel until noon of Monday. 
When he arrived, what was his surprise to find 
that she would not sail until the next da}^ ! 

And so the matter went on, day succeeding day, 
and still the vessel not ready to depart. It was all 
owing to the natural indecision of Loudoun's 
character. Franklin came to ^ew York to take 
passage about the first of April ; it was very near 
the last of June before he took his departure. 
The General's letters were always to be ready to- 
morrow, and to-morrow; but one packet after "an- 
other arrived and was detained by his orders, 
until there were four of them waiting to carry his 

despatches to his government. The merchants 
20 



230 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

were in a fever over the delay, for tliey had sent 
out orders by the vessels for their autumn goods, 
which required despatch in order to make their 
trade worth any thing to them. They were anxious 
about their letters, too, and were subjected to the 
payment of heavy rates of insurance besides, it 
being war time. But their urgency availed nothing. 
Whoever waited on his lordship to see what was 
the cause of the delay, found him at his desk, 
plunged in the industrious preparation of his 
despatches. 

All the passengers who were to sail finally went 
down to Sandy Hook, where they awaited the 
movements of the fleet ; there they were compelled 
to remain for six weeks, using up their sea stores 
and being obliged to purchase more. The fleet 
set sail at length for Louisburg, with the General 
on board, with intent to reduce and capture that 
place ; he kept the several packet boats dancing 
attendance on him all the- way, to be ready to take 
his despatches when he should have made them 
up. In this way he compelled them to hover for 
five days around the fleet, and then the ship on 
which Franklin was received permission to depart 
for England. The other packets were detained 
still longer; in fact, he took them down near 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 231 

Louisburg witli him, then changed his mind about 
attacking the place, and finally turned and went 
back to ]^ew York again. The passengers were 
incensed to a high degree, and swore all manner 
of revenge upon him for such treatment. 

When Lord Loudoun was first sent over by the 
ministry to take charge of the war against the 
French and Lidians, and to supersede Gen. Shir- 
ley, the citizens of l^ew York gave him an enter- 
tainment, at which Shirley was himself present. 
Franklin was invited to attend likewise. He 
chanced to be placed near Gen. Shirley, whom he 
observed to have been seated in a very low chair, 
the crowd compelling them to send out and bor- 
row chairs. Franklin remarked the fact to the 
General, saying—" They have given you a very 
low seat." "No matter, Mr. Franklin," said he, 
" I find a lotv seat the easiest." Loudoun's foolish 
flourish before Louisburg, which resulted in no- 
thing, lost the country Fort George, and placed 
the colonies in a situation of greater danger than 
before. 

The voyage to England proved, after all, to be 
a pleasant one. Franklin amused himself with 
computations respecting the speed of the ship, and 
experimental calculations of the best mode of sail- 



232 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ing lier ; and he afterwards set down his own re- 
flections on the matter, throwing out many a hint 
which has, since his day, been made much of by 
builders of ships. Their vessel was several times 
chased by French privateers during the passage, 
but they managed to outsail everything of a hos- 
tile character. "When they arrived off the coast, 
they came frightfully near being wrecked on the 
rocks at midnight, owing to the carelessness of 
the man on the watch ; but by the great skill of 
the captain, who was roused from his sleep below, 
they wore round the rocks, and went on shore at 
Falmouth the next forenoon. Franklin had his 
son with him, and set out forthwith for London, 
stopping by the way only to see Stonehenge, on 
Salisbury Plain, and some antiquities at Wilton. 

He arrived in London, the accredited agent of 
the American Colonies, on the 27th of July, 1757. 
He was in his fifty-second year. Thirty years be- 
fore, he had landed there under very different cir- 
cumstances ; now he came bringing with him the 
respect and confidence of all at home, and to be 
welcomed by a w^ide European fame, which had 
o-one before him. For his writino;s and discove- 
ries as a politician and a philosopher, he was most 
cordially met by statesmen and men of science. 



'first five years in EUROPE. 233 

He received attention and respect at the hands of 
all men. He was already a member of the Royal 
Society, which was a sufficient passport into the 
best circles. Peter Collinson, another member of 
that society, who had been his correspondent for 
some time in England, invited him to his house, 
where he remained until he took lodgings a few 
doors from the Strand, at Mrs. Stevenson's. Some 
of his Pennsjdvania friends had recommended this 
lady's house to him as an excellent place to board, 
and he continued there during the whole of his 
stay in England, which was fifteen years. He be- 
came greatly attached to the family, and speaks 
frequently of them in his letters. Some of his 
best papers on philosophy were written for the 
instruction of his landlady's daughter. Miss Mary 
Stevenson, who early attracted him by her inquir- 
ing mind and habits of study. 

Among the acquaintances of former days and 
other places which he renewed in London, was 
that of Gov. Shirley, once of Massachusetts ; they 
were at once intimate again. But the most of his 
new friends were among scientific men and philoso- 
phers, his taste for politics being kept down by 
his fondness for studies in philosophy. As soon 

as his arrival in England was known, letters came 
20* 



234 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to him from all over the continent, written by men 
distinguished in the walks of science, testifying 
their respect and admiration both for himself and 
his attainments. 

His first misfortune, however, after his arrival, 
was to be prostrated with sickness, which kept 
him at home for nearly two months. It was occa- 
sioned by a cold and a fever, producing much 
pain in his head, and frequently delirium. Before 
he could get relief, which was obtained only 
by cupping and the free use of Peruvian bark, 
he became so much reduced as to be very low 
indeed. 

When he did get out again, he addressed him- 
self first of all to the business on which he had 
been sent. He waited on the Proprietaries, and 
laid before them the instructions with which he 
came armed from the Pennsylvania Assembly. The 
former received his statements in a bad temper, 
refusing to do in any wise differently from what 
they were now doing by the Governors ; they held 
that they had the right to interpret the colonial 
charters for themselves, and to send out instruc- 
tions for the Governors accordingly. Yet they 
promised to consider the remonstrance he pre- 
sented. Franklin left them without the hope of 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 235 

making any impression, and settled it in his mind 
to appeal very soon to a higher tribunal. 

The Proprietaries in question were two sons of 
the famous William Penn, — Thomas and Eichard 
Penn. They were beforehand with Franklin, and 
used all their influence to throw obstacles in the 
way of his plan. The officers of the Crown, too, 
were averse to his design, from fear of a diminu- 
tion of the prerogative of the Crown ; and they 
were the ones to whom the whole question was to 
be finally submitted. Then there was a latent 
prejudice against the Quakers of Pennsylvania for 
being so backward with the war, and for even op- 
posing it altogether. The papers took up the 
story also, and labored hard to excite all the pre- 
judice possible against his errand. 

He waited patiently for an opportunity to stem 
the torrent, which was not long in offering. One 
of the newspapers reported, as coming through 
letters from Philadelphia, that the Assembly was 
doing nothing but quarrel with the Governor, 
while the Indians swarmed all around on the fron- 
tier ; and that they would vote no money for relief 
except on such conditions that the Governor could 
not accept it. In other words, the Quakers were 
charged with obstinately standing in the way of 



236 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

all progress. Franklin sent a letter to the pub- 
lisher of the paper, signed by bis son, denying the 
whole of it; and to show how unfairly he was 
treated, he was compelled to pay for the insertion 
of the letter, although it just as much belonged 
to the printer to give it to the public as to have 
published the original charges. That letter shed 
a new light on the w^hole subject of the province 
of Pennsylvania ; and as for the opposition of the 
Quaker population to a defensive war, it was 
shown that in no instance had they permitted their 
religious principles to obstruct measures for the 
protection of the province. It proved, also, that 
the Assembly had voted more than a half million 
of dollars already, since the war began, besides 
being at the expense of erecting forts, raising and 
equipping soldiers, fitting out a ship-of-war for 
cruising off the coast, and setting on foot a suc- 
cessful expedition against the Indians; and laid 
down the proposition that the Proprietaries alone 
stood in the way of the harmony of the govern- 
ment and the happiness of the people. 

But no impression was yet made by Pranklin. 
To expedite his business according to the proper 
forms, he must first go before the Board of Trade 
with his case, who would in turn report their 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 237 

opinion to the Privy Council. If lie could not 
succeed here, lie meant to present the matter 
directly to Parliament. European politics were 
so mixed at this time, that colonial affairs went 
begging foi* attention. He saw how much longer 
he was likely to be kept from home than he had 
expected, and wrote to his wife, January 21st, 
1758, — " I begin to think I shall hardly return be- 
fore this time twelve months. I am for doing 
effectuall}^ what I came about ; and I find it re- 
quires both time and patience." He found much 
solace, in his perplexing delays, in the society and 
conversation of cultivated men ; but, after all, he 
writes that, " at this time of life, domestic com- 
forts afford the most solid satisfaction, and my un- 
easiness at being absent from my family, and long- 
ing desire to be with them, make me often sigh in 
the midst of cheerful company." 

He relaxed no effort to push the business along ; 
there were the lawyers on liis own side to supply 
with the facts of the case, and smaller items to be 
kept constantly in mind. For a whole year, how- 
ever, nothing seemed to have been done. That 
first summer was given up to travelling over Eng- 
land. He was at the Commencement at Cam- 
bridge by invitation, where he was received with 



238 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



marked attention by the heads of the University. 
He hunted out the town where his father was 
born, and excavated all the traditions possible to 
be had respecting his ancestors; consulting the 
oldest inhabitants, parish registers, and old tomb- 
stones. He found the daughter of his father's 
eldest brother, a lady advanced in years. His 
father's native town was Ecton ; and there had his 
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather lived 
before him. The old home place was a decayed 
stone building, but known even then as the 
"Franklin House." 

The wife of the parish rector told him a great 
deal about his family, and carried him out into 
the graveyard and pointed out several of the grave- 
stones, which were so covered with moss that she 
ordered the man to scrub it off with a hard brush 
and a basin of water. 

Going to Birmingham, he found several of his 
wife's relations. When he returned to London 
from his tour, his passion for hunting genealogies 
as strong as before, he w^rote that he had " found 
out a daughter of his father's only sister, very old 
and never married; a good, clever woman, but 
poor ; though vastly contented with her situation, 
and very cheerful." All his relatives were in 



FIKST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 239 

humble life, and some of tliem very poor ; it was 
his pleasure to hunt them up, claim relationship, 
and do something to make them remember him. 

The papers had been busy, in his absence, swell- 
ing the current of popular prejudice against his 
cause ; and he was advised to use their columns 
in its defence. Accordingly, early in the follow- 
ing year (1759), he came out with a carefully pre- 
pared work, entitled the '^ Historical Review of 
Pennsylvania." It was not published with his 
name, yet he received all the abuse it called forth. 
It was written with great ability and clearness, 
and was a complete defence of the Assembly and 
people of Pennsylvania against the assumptions 
of the Proprietaries. In giving the story of the 
politics of the province, he reflected with much 
severity upon the public conduct both of lYilliam 
Penn and his descendants. Through all the attacks 
which were made on him as the author of the 
work, he never denied that he did write it, leav- 
ing others to infer what they chose. He after- 
wards denied it, however, in a letter to David 
Hume, but in such a way as to leave no doubt 
that it was all compiled and written by his per- 
sonal direction. 

The ministry had been changed just before his 



240 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

arrival in Eno^land, Mr. Pitt beino- made Prime 
Minister. Franklin persistently sought an intro- 
duction to tliis remarkable man, but in vain. He 
afterwards said, in alluding to tliis difficulty, that 
Mr. Pitt "was then too great a man, or too much 
occupied in affairsof greater moment." Franklin 
interested himself deeply in the politics of the 
time, and was just the man to advise the ministry 
wisely about American affairs. Indeed, it was 
by his advice that the conquest of Canada was 
adopted as a ministerial measure, and successfully 
carried out. Though he could not get the ear of 
Pitt, yet his suggestions made Pitt's ministry a 
j)owerful and brilliant one ; for, in obedience to 
them Wolfe won his famous victory at Quebec, 
immortalizing his own name and pei-petuating the 
power of his country. 

In after years, when Pitt was the " great Com- 
moner," and stood up in Parliament in eloquent 
defence of the liberties of the colonies, he sought 
Franklin's acquaintance, relying upon him for 
much of that information which gave his speeches 
such weight and so much of their power. 

Little was done for Pennsylvania during 1759. 
A new Governor was sent out by the Proprietaries, 
— Mr. Hamilton, who had held the office before. 



FIKST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 241 

They gave him their explicit instructions, from 
which he vainly tried, before leaving, to make 
them deviate. 

That smumer he went to Scotland, taking his 
son with him. Distinguished men in that country 
met him with great respect and cordiality, and 
among them occur such names as those of Lord 
Kames, David Hume, and Dr. Robertson. He 
had been honored with the title of LL. D., some 
time before, by the University of St. Andrews. 
He wrote afterwards to Lord Kames, alluding to 
this visit and the pleasure it gave him : — " On the 
whole, I must say, I think the time we spent there 
was six weeks of the densest happiness I have met 
with in any part of my life." So strongly was he 
attracted to Scotland, he declared that, but for his 
connections elsewhere, it would be just the coun- 
try he would like of all others to live in. The 
"freedom of the city" was presented him while in 
Edinburgh, "as a mark" — to quote from the 
record — "of the affectionate respect which the 
Magistrates and Council have for a gentleman, 
whose amiable character, greatly distinguished for 
usefulness to the society which he belongs to, and 
love to all mankind, had long ago reached them 
across the Atlantic Ocean." 

21 



242 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

It consumed three years to finish the business 
on which he had come to England, — till June, 
1T60 ; but it was finally settled to the perfect satis- 
faction of Franklin and the Assembly, and to the 
great disappointment of the grasping Proprieta- 
ries. The famous Lord Mansfield assisted in 
drawing up the report of the Board of Trade, 
which approved of the act of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly. 

The war w^ith France was now coming to an 
end, and terms of peace were generally talked of 
among the public men. In the progress of the 
war, which Avas but a struggle between the two 
powers for the control of the American continent, 
— England had wrested from France Canada, 
Guadaloupe, and other parts of the West and East 
Indies, and Africa; the question was, w^hat and 
how much it would be sound polic}^ to thuik of 
holding. Some were for retaining Canada, and 
some for keeping Gruadaloupe. Knowing at least 
as much as any of them about the controversy, 
Franklin did not hesitate to take a part in it him- 
self, and to measure opinions and reasonings with 
such writers as Burke and the Earl of Bath. 

He put forth a tract, though without his name, 
entitled "The Interest of Great Britain Con- 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 243 

sidered;" and argued strongly for the retention of 
Canada. He liad urged its conquest before, and 
rejoiced when it had fallen into the hands of 
British power. His views on this subject were 
those of a statesman; for, said he, "if we keep it 
(Canada), all the country from the St. Lawrence 
to the Mississippi will in another century be filled 
with British people." 

The pamphlet produced a marked impression, 
not less upon the public mind than upon the 
ministry. Canada, at any rate, was kept fast. 

During the summer of 1760, according to his 
custom while he lived in England, he travelled 
through the northern part of England, intending 
to extend his tour to Scotland and Ireland ; but 
he returned through Cheshire and Wales to Bris- 
tol and Bath. He found, on his return, that the 
Pennsylvania Assembly had placed in his hands 
the money which Parliament had paid back to 
that province and Delaware, for their outlays 
during the war, — a sum amounting to some thirty 
thousand pounds for the first year; this he was 
requested to invest in the public stocks, and other- 
wise. By his management of this responsible 
business he gave the utmost satisfaction to his 
constituents. The Governor and Proprietaries 



244 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

both, labored to prevent his being appointed to do 
this work, but the Assembly persisted, maintain- 
ing its confidence in him throughout. 

The next summer (1J61), he passed over to the 
continent; and then began a new epoch in his 
public life. He visited all the chief cities and 
towns of Holland and Flanders, and stored his 
mind with hints that would be of use to him in the 
future. His studies were naturally interrupted by 
these changes ; yet he was always eager to perform 
philosophical experiments whenever he could do 
so. One of his experiments, at this time, was 
upon the very peculiar properties said to exist in 
a stone called tourmalin ; and another was to prove 
the theory, then just started, that cold could be 
produced by evaporation. His experiments in re- 
lation to the latter were of remarkable interest. 
He showed, from them, how it was possible for a 
man to freeze to death in a hot day of summer. 
On the principle of evaporation, too, he explained- 
why one's body is never heated above ninety de- 
grees, let the heat around him be as great as it 
may. He paid a visit to the salt mines of England, 
on his return to that country, and threw out many 
interesting and original suggestions on the cause 
of the salt in the sea ; it was his own opinion, and 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 245 

contrary to the general one, that all the water on 
the globe was salt at first, and that the fresh water 
to be found m the springs and rivers was the result 
of distillation. As for the rock salt found in 
mines, instead of imparting its own qualities to 
the sea he thought it was itself drawn from the 
sea, and therefore that the sea is fresher to-daj 
than at the beginning. 

He had always been fond of music, from his 
youth up, and he pursued it as a science as well as 
an accomplishment. He furnished critical remarks 
on the old Scotch songs, which were much com- 
mended by some of the first men of Scotland as 
being extremely acute. He also ofifered some 
views on the defects of modern music, supporting 
them with criticisms on one of the compositions 
of Handel. 

When in London, he first saw the famous mu- 
sical glasses, — a set of tumblers which gave forth 
music by rubbing the wet fingers around their 
rims. The invention was but a rude one then, at 
best ; it was necessary first to arrange the glasses 
on the table, and to tune them by pouring in 
water until the right note was obtained for each 
one of them. Franklin thought he could improve 
on this contrivance, and made the attempt. He 
21* 



246 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

succeeded in making a compact instrument where 
were several parts and pieces before, and in en- 
larging the compass of the notes. When complete, 
he named it the Armonica. 

It was a hemisphere in shape, with a socket to 
fix it on a spindle. The glasses were then arranged 
on this spindle according to their size, the tones 
corresponding to the size of the glasses. Then the 
spindle was fixed in a case horizontally, and turned 
by a wheel. The person performing on it applied 
his wet finger to the glasses as they turned round* 
This novel instrument became very popular in its 
day, and one lady went to the principal cities of 
Europe performing on it in public, accompanying 
it with her voice. 

Early in the year 1762, Franklin — now formally 
recognized as Dr. Franklin, — made ready to re- 
turn home. He was strongly urged to remain in 
London permanently, and send for his family to 
come over; and a friend even wrote a letter to 
Mrs. Franklin, in Philadelphia, laboring to obtain 
her consent. But she resisted, like her husband. 
His services were already spoken for by another 
people, soon to become a nation by themselves. 
There is no doubt that he would have bettered 
himself pecuniarily by complying with the request; 



FIRST FIVE YEARS IN EUROPE. 247 

but he was already looking in another direction 
for tlie great work of his life. 

Edinburgh and Oxford Universities both com- 
plimented him with the title of Doctor of Laws, 
before leaving. Mr. Hume expressed his sincere 
regret at the thought of losing him out of Eng- 
land. Said he — ''America has sent us many good 
things, gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo, &c. ; 
but you are the first philosopher, and indeed the 
first great man of letters, for whom we are be- 
holden to her." 

He was jealously watched in all his movements 
by the Proprietaries, while in England ; but they 
acknowledged that they found no cause of com- 
plaint in his conduct, from beginning to end. He 
was scrupulous in performing the duties for which 
he had been sent over, yet he gave no occasion 
for dissatisfaction in his private conduct. 

In the latter part of August he set sail to return, 
having been absent from home a little more than 
^ve years. He addressed a letter to his friend 
Lord Kames, of Scotland, on the eve of going on 
shipboard, declaring that he could not leave that 
happy island and his many friends in it without 
extreme regret, though he was about going to a 



248 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

country and a people that lie loved. In liis own 
words, he fancied he felt ''like those who are 
leaving this world for the next ; grief at the part- 
ing; fear of the passage; hope of the future." 
He reached his home in Philadelphia on the first 
of November. 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 249 



CHAPTER XI. 

FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 

HE received, on his return home, the thanks 
of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the 
warm congratulations of his friends. He 
had been elected to the Assembly every year 
during his absence, and took his seat immediately 
on his return. The public thanks were voted to 
him for his eminent services to America, as well 
as to Pennsylvania. 

His private affairs needed his attention sadly. 
As Postmaster-General for the colonies still, he 
travelled, for &ve months of 1763, as far as New 
Hampshire to the east, making a journey of some 
sixteen hundred miles, north and south. His 
daughter travelled with him, he driving for him- 
self in a light carriage. They likewise took a 
saddle horse along with them, which his daughter 
rode from Rhode Island to Philadelphia. He was 



250 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

cordially greeted by his old friends in I^ew York, 
Ehode Island, and Boston. 

His health was none too good at this time, 
which compelled him to favor himself on his 
journey as much as possible. The people with 
whom he stopped, too, urged him to eat and drink 
a great deal more than he wanted, which led him 
to write his sister in Boston, after reaching home 
again, — " I am (at home) allowed to know when I 
have eat and drank enough, am warm enough, and 
to sit in a place that I like." He recovered his 
health in due time, and went into active life again. 

The western tribes of Indians soon banded to- 
gether and began to commit barbarities upon the 
people of the frontier settlements, especially of the 
Middle States. Troops were raised to repel and 
punish them without delay. The Assembly of 
Pennsylvania voted money and appointed com- 
missioners to spend it for war purposes ; and 
Franklin was one of the commissioners. A horrible 
massacre of inoifensive and friendly Indians oc- 
curred, and a regiment of men was raised to go 
out from Philadelphia and repel the further ad- 
vances of the rioters. Franklin was one of three 
or four to address them on behalf of the Assembly. 
The object of the interview was gained, but none 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 251 

of the bloody murderers of the Indians were ever 
brought to punishment. 

John Penn was sent over as new Governor, in 

October, 1763. He addressed the Assembly with 

Mr words, which for a time promised harmony 

between them; but upon that body's framing a 

militia law, at his own recommendation, which 

reserved to the several companies of a regiment 

the power to choose their own officers, subject 

afterwards to the Governor's selection from their 

choice, ill feelings sprang up again, and disputes 

of a larger sort soon followed. The subject of a 

land-tax came up; and the Governor quarrelled 

with the Assembly on that. The object of this 

tax was as a basis, or security, for emitting bills 

of credit, with which to pay the expenses of the 

war with the Indians. The borders were even 

then threatened by ih^ savages, and rather than 

give up safety itself the Assembly yielded to the 

Governor. But a more bitter feeling toward him 

than before was the consequence. 

They resolved to petition the king, without any 
further delay, that he would take the government 
of the province out of the hands of the Proprie- 
taries into his own. Dr. Franklin came forward 
with one of his effective pamphlets — '^ Cool 



252 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Thoughts on the Present Situation of Public 
Affairs." He probed the matter to the bottom, 
and showed the necessity of changing the entire 
government, so that the proprietary power in it 
should cease. After a vacation of seven weeks, 
the Assembly met again (May 14th). Petitions to 
the king for an immediate change of government 
came in from all quarters, signed by more than 
three thousand names. The House took a vote, 
and resolved to sustain the cause of the petitions. 
Dr. Franklin drew up still another petition to the 
king, on behalf of the House. 

The subject was debated, pro and con, with 
much feeling and spirit. The Speaker, Mr. ]^or- 
ris, resigned his seat rather than put his official 
signature to the petition, and the House at once 
elected Dr. Franklin to his place. He, of course, 
signed it without delay. The famous John Dick- 
inson made an eloquent speech against the peti- 
tion, which was published, with a severely personal 
preface. Another member, Galloway, published 
his speech on the other side, to which a preface 
full of humor and sarcasm was contributed by Dr. 
Franklin. After a great deal of v\^arm argument, 
the petitions were sent over to the provincial agent 
m London, with instructions how to proceed. 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 253 

But just at that critical time happened to come 
up in the Assembly the new and startling proposal 
of the British Ministrj^ to raise money for defray- 
ing the expenses of the late war^ by imposing 
stamp duties on the colonies. The news caused 
great excitement all over the country. At once 
the Pennsylvania Assembly protested against the 
measure through their London agent. Dr. Frank- 
lin, as Speaker, signed this protest as the last act 
of his speakership. 

A new election came off for members of Assem^ 
bly in the fall, and by the combination of all the 
interests on the other side Dr. Franklin was de- 
feated. The men who thought to have their 
revenge on him in this way found that it would 
have been more for their interest to have turned 
in and elected, instead of defeating, him ; for 
being out of public office now, for the first time 
in fourteen years, the Assembly surprised his 
enemies bj' appointing him a special agent to the 
Court of Great Britain, to take charge of the 
petition for a change of government, and to look 
after the general interests of the province. The 
chagrin of the men who had combined to defeat 
him in a popular election exceeded all description.; 
it took the form of downright rage. 

22 



254 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

There was no money in the treasury to defray 
the expenses of a special agent, and it was voted 
to provide for them in the next money bill that 
should be passed by the Assembly. A few mer- 
chants came forward, in this emergency, and in 
two hours raised eleven hundred pounds, which 
they freely loaned to the public for this purpose. 
Franklin left home for Europe twelve days after 
he received the new appointment, on the 7th of 
iN'ovember, 1764, escorted to Chester, below Phila- 
delphia, by a cavalcade of three hundred citizens. 
At Chester he was to go on board vessel. The 
kind feeling shown him on his departure overcame 
Mm : he prayed that Heaven would bless his dear 
friends and "all Pennsylvania." The vessel being 
hindered a little, he took occasion to write back a 
letter of advice to his daughter, suggesting that 
she should not give his political enemies, in his 
absence, any cause to interpret her own conduct 
to his prejudice, and to be very circumspect at all 
times. And he added — " Go to church constantly, 
whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the 
Common Prayer Book is your principal business 
there, and, if properly attended to, will do more 
towards amending the heart than sermons gene- 
rally can do." Yet he would not have her despise 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 255 

the sermons, even when she disliked those who 
preached them; "for the discourse," said he, "is 
often much better than the man, as sweet and clear 
waters come through very dirty earth." 

He went on shore at Portsmouth after a voyage 
of thirty days, whence he pushed on to London 
without delay, and took lodgings as before at Mrs. 
Stevenson's. When they heard in Philadelphia 
of his safe arrival out, they rang the bells for joy. 

His first duty, as special agent, was to oppose 
the passage of the Stamp Act by Parliament. 
The father of the scheme was George Grenville, 
and with his name it will always be associated. 
The colonists denied that Parliament had any 
right to tax them, since they were not represented 
in that body ; and it was a principle of the British 
Constitution that no man should be taxed save by 
himself or his representatives. The same principle 
was recognized in the charters which were given 
to the colonies. It was argued, on our side, that 
Parliament could not violate it ; but the Ministry 
had gone too far to turn back now, and so the 
Stamp Act was passed, though protested against 
by the colonies and opposed by their agents in 
London. 

Writing home on the event to Charles Thomson, 



256 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin said — " Depend upon it, my good neigh- 
bor, I took every step in my power to prevent the 
passing of the Stamp Act. Xobody conld be more 
concerned and interested than myself to oppose it 
sincerely and heartily. But the tide was too 
strong against us. The nation was provoked by 
American claims of independence, and all parties 
joined by resolving in this act to settle the point. 
"We might as well have hindered the sun's setting. 
That we could not do. But since it is done, my 
friend, and it may be long before it rises again, 
let us make as good a night of it as we can. We 
may still light candles. Frugality and industry 
will go a great way towards indemnifying us. 
Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than 
kings and Parliaments. If we can get rid of the 
former, we may easily get rid of the latter." 

The passage of the Stamp Act produced great 
excitement in America, and the colonies at once 
instructed their agents in England to labor for its 
repeal. The men who had been appointed to dis- 
tribute the stamps were treated with all sorts of 
indignities, and finally compelled to resign their 
posts. ]N"one of the stamped paper sent over was 
permitted to be landed, but was finally sent back 
again. Early the next year, 1766, such was the 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 257 

opposition to the measure in America, the subject 
came up before Parliament again, Grenville had 
been displaced, in the meantime, by the Marquis 
of Rockingham. It was proposed to repeal the 
act, in obedience to the piles of petitions from the 
colonies. The proposal drew out a warm discus- 
sion, during which Dr. Franklin was summoned 
before the bar of the House, to acquaint that body 
with the real state of things in America. 

Both sides put him questions freely, and he 
answered impromptu. He did not know before- 
hand what questions they were going to ask him, 
and he could not therefore prepare his answers ; 
but those answers could not have been more hap- 
py and effective. The impression he made on the 
mind of the House was remarkable. They could 
not fail to admire his perfect self-possession, his 
thorough knowledge of the matter inquired about, 
his dignity, and the propriety of his phrases. The 
members knew not whether to be lost in admira- 
tion or astonishment. It was a remarkable scene, 
and has always been recalled as perhaps the most 
memorable in Dr. Franklin's eventful life. They 
asked him if the Americans would pay the stamp 
duty if it were to be modified somewhat : " 'No, 

never," said he, "unless compelled by force of 
22* 



258 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

arms." He was asked how they would receive 
another tax: ''Just as they do this," was his an- 
swer, — "they will never pay it." He told the 
House, in reply to other questions, that his coun- 
trymen would never buy British manufactured 
goods again, unless this act was repealed; that 
they would never grow tired of non-importation ; 
that he knew them as well as any one, and they 
had materials enough for their wants, and the in- 
dustry to work them up ; they could and would 
make their own clothes ; it was once their pride 
to indulge in the fashions and manufactures of 
Great Britain, but it was their glory now to '^ wear 
their old clothes over again till they can make 
new ones." 

The stamp act was repealed, after a long and 
furious debate ; but the sting was left behind, in 
what is known as the Declaratory Act, which 
affirmed that " Parliament had a right to bind the 
colonies in all cases whatsoever." This operated 
to cloud the satisfaction which the repeal of the 
stamp act had given the colonies. Yet they made 
the most of their victory, and to Franklin's per- 
sonal influence and endeavors was it chiefly due. 
They could have sent to England on their business 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 259 

no man, who would have done for them what he 
did. 

He went over to Germany in the summer of 
1766, and paid a visit to Gottingen, among other 
places. The Universities took up much of his 
attention. On his return to London, he bent his 
energies again .to the w^ork for which he had come 
over, — a change of government for Pennsylvania ; 
hut, although he succeeded in engaging the seri- 
ous attention of the ministry in his plan, nothing 
was actually done in consequence chiefly of the 
unsettled condition of afl^airs in the colonies. 
When the Revolution came, this and other im- 
portant questions finally settled themselves. 

The nature of the relation of the colonies to the 
mother country next engrossed his attention, and 
he began to write upon it to his friends in Eng- 
land and at home. What he wrote here had great 
weight with minds already engaged in discussing 
the same topic. He agreed that the union might 
be made a perfect one, if the colonies were allowed 
to send representatives to Parliament; but it be- 
longed now to Parliament to propose it. " The 
time has been," said he, "when the colonies might 
have been pleased with it; they are now indif- 



260 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ferent about it ; and, if it is much longer delayed, 
they too will refuse it." 

There was a season of quiet for him after the 
repeal of the stamp act, and he improved it for 
travel. He went to Paris in the autumn of 1767, 
in company with his friend Sir John Pringle, and 
took letters of introduction from the French Am- 
bassador in London to many eminent persons, who 
received him with cordial respect and esteem. He 
was presented to the King and the Royal Family. 
Men of science greeted him warmly. His dis- 
coveries in electricity had made him known to 
them several years before, where they were more 
trul}^ appreciated than in any other portion of 
Europe. He little thought, as did any one else, 
that this first visit to Paris was to prepare the way 
for his second appearance at the great capital, 
where he was to perform those distinguished ser- 
vices for a nation which would treasure his name 
to the latest generation. 

Mr. Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
had set in force a revenue act in the interval, which 
had given great cause of offence to the inhabitants 
of Massachusetts more particularly. When he 
got back to London from Paris, news came of 
popular disturbances in Boston. They disliked 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 261 

the appointment of customs commissioners, and 
the making of the salaries of their provincial offi- 
cers dependent on the Crown instead of, as before, 
on the Assembly of the province. The people of 
Boston had come together in town meeting, and 
voted resolves of high spirit. They likewise drew 
up a paper, and passed it around among the in- 
habitants, pledging themselves each to the other 
to do all they could to promote industry and home 
manufactures, and, after a certain time, not to buy 
such articles as were named in the paper and im- 
ported from abroad. The friends of the ministry 
looked on these doings as little less than rebellion ; 
while the friends of the colonies themselves could 
find no ground on which to defend them. Dr. 
Franklin stepped in with another of his timely 
publications to allay the excitement, entitled 
*' Causes of the American Discontents before 
1768." This he handed to the editor of the Lon- 
don Chronicle to publish in that paper; but the 
editor took the edge all off before it appeared, 
which led Franklin to say that the man had 
*' drawn the teeth and pared the nails" of his arti- 
cle, so that it could " neither scratch nor bite." 
Yet it was a judicious and happy effort of the 
American agent, and did much good in showing 



262 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

that the discontents in Boston were only the 
natural result of the treatment of the colonies for 
a long course of years. 

The ministry again changed in 1T68, Lord Hills- 
borough becoming Secretary of State for America, 
— an office created especially for the care of the 
colonies. His control over American affairs was 
almost entire. He was upright and honest, but 
opinionated and obstinate. He treated Franklin 
with much civility at first, holding frequent con- 
versations with him on American affairs ; but even 
then Franklin foretold a breach between the two 
countries. A story was started in England, at the 
time, and repeated by his political enemies in 
Pennsylvania, that Franklin was in quest of an 
office under the ministry, for which he was even 
willing to sell the confidence his countrymen had 
reposed in him ; but his letters about that time 
are sufficient to stamp such rumors with the mark 
of falsehood. His friends talked of his being 
made Governor of Pennsylvania, in case their 
form of government was changed ; while some of 
the most influential inhabitants of Massachusetts 
province expressed a desire that he should succeed 
Sir Francis Bernard as their Governor, who had 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 263 

done little but give them trouble from the begin- 
ning. 

He was about to return home again, his own 
affairs requiring his attention ; and he felt per- 
suaded that his presence was of no service, since 
he could do nothing which the regular agent 
could not as well do without him. Just then he 
received the appointment of agent for the colony 
of Georgia ; and he deemed it best to wait for the 
arrival of his instructions. This delayed him 
until other matters crowded in to prolong his stay 
much beyond all his calculations. It was in the 
fall of that year that he was invited to dine, with 
fifteen other gentlemen, with the King of Den- 
mark who was then in London. 

He never lost his interest in his philosophical 
inquiries and studies, and, among other sugges- 
tions, he wrote home to urge the colonists to plant 
mulberry trees and raise silkworms, as a profitable 
branch of domestic industry. This, perhaps, was 
as much from his desire that his countrymen 
should produce their own clothing as from any 
other ; for he repeatedly addressed them in favor 
of holding out against the importation or use of 
British commodities. As the petitions of the 
colonists produced no effect with Parliament or 



264 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the ministry, he advised them to prepare to sup- 
port themselves. 

Late in the year, he received the agency of the 
Xew Jersey colony also, of which his son was the 
Governor. The boundary between East and West 
Jersey was left to his care, with other matters. 
He had occasion, just at that time, to express his 
views upon the probability of the colonies becom- 
ing quiet again ; but from the first he solemnly 
declared that nothing would satisfy and pacify the 
people of America but a clear repeal of all the 
laws designed to collect a revenue from them 
without their consent. 

Parliament took the matter up with all serious- 
ness, in the month of April, 1770. The ministry 
were persuaded of the determination of the colo- 
nies, after three years' holding out, to withhold 
their trade as long as the new revenue laws were 
on the books, and they concluded to wipe them 
all out, abolishing taxes of every sort for the 
Americans except a tax on tea. It was in no 
sense, however, a movement for redressing the 
wrongs of which the colonists comjDlained; but a 
stroke of commercial policy alone. The duty on 
the single article of tea, too, was calculated to let 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 265 

the people of this country feel that Parliament was 
still supreme. 

The effect was to exasperate and arouse the 
colonists more than ever. Dr. Franklin was in 
continual correspondence with the home govern- 
ments, and with his friends, and some of his let- 
ters were secretly obtained and sent back to Eng- 
land to the ministers. It was thrown out that he 
would lose his office as Postmaster-General, in 
return for what he had written home about the 
ministry. The papers abused and traduced him, 
probably hoping to force him to resign ; but that 
he would not do : he thought that as he had, by 
close attention and unwearied industry, made the 
post-office revenues worth what they were, he 
would fix upon the ministry the odium of turning 
him out of office, and not relieve them voluntarily 
of such a load himself. 

As these letters made a great deal of talk in 
their day, it would be as well to know what he 
had to say about their authorship. ^' It was true," 
said he, " I did write them, and they were written 
in compliance with another duty, that to my coun- 
try; a duty quite distinct from that of Postmas- 
ter." He said that he had behaved in this matter 
just as he did a few years before on a similar oc- 

23 



266 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

casion, when the ministry were "ready to hug''' 
him for the help he rendered them. Even if they 
did remove him from office, he would not there- 
fore change his political opinions. He did not 
hold that, hecause he held an office under the 
ministry, he was obliged to act with the ministry 
in all matters. His rule was, "never to turn aside 
in public affiiirs through views of private interest; 
but to go straight forward in doing what appears 
to me right at the time, leaving the consequences 
wdth Providence." 

Massachusetts likewise appointed him her agent, 
at this stage of affairs, well knowing his sentiments 
through the letters w^hich were written by him to 
some of the leading men of the province. This 
appointment nettled Lord Hillsborough more than 
all. The ministry had had more trouble, thus far, 
with Massachusetts than with any other colony ; 
and to find Franklin, after having presented the 
protests of several of the other colonies, accredited 
as the agent of Massachusetts likewise, was a little 
too much for their temper. Lord Hillsborough 
broke out in a fit of anger, w^hen Franklin went 
to present his credentials, and the scene became 
an interesting one, to say the least. He denied 
the fact of Franklin's appointment as agent at all. 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 267 

Franklin answered him, coolly and calmly, that 
his letters had been brought by the last ships. 
Hillsborough denied that such an agency could be 
entrusted to any man without the assent and co- 
operation of the Governor ; on this point, Frank- 
lin took issue, showing that the Colonial Assem- 
blies always had appointed such agents as they 
chose, and without asking the consent or caring 
for the opposition of any royal Governor whatever. 
He finally handed Hillsborough the proof of 
his appointment, in the form of the vote of the 
House appointing him, saying to him as he did so 
— " Will your Lordship please to look at it ?" He 
took the paper, but did not deign to open it; 
breaking out into angry declamation, he denounced 
the whole system of appointing agents, and said 
that he would have nothing to do with one of 
them unless they were regularly appointed and 
their appointment approved by the Governor. 
And after more talk of the same sort, and expos- 
tulations by Franklin, he handed back the latter 
his papers without any further examination of 
them. It was very rude of his Lordship ; but it 
incited Franklin to tell him, as he was leaving his 
presence, that it was of little consequence whether 
the appointment was recognized by him or not, 



268 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

for he was persuaded no agent whatever could be 
of any use there to the colonies. 

Dr. Franklin was at this time the special agent 
in London of four colonies, and he was closely en- 
gaged with their affairs. In the following year, 
1771, he found leisure for another tour, which he 
made in England. He found this annual recrea- 
tion necessary for the preservation of his health, 
which was beginning to suffer somewhat from his 
excessive confinement to business when in Lon- 
don. He went, this year, to Leeds, to Manchester, 
and to Litchfield, at each of which places he met 
distinguished men, whom he assisted about their 
philosophical experiments, and with whom he was 
in correspondence on scientific studies for years 
afterward. During this summer tour, he went 
into Wales, Scotland, and L^eland ; he had not 
been in the last named country before. All par- 
ties offered him most respectful welcome. At 
Dublin he met Lord Hillsborough, and dined with 
him at the Lord Lieutenant's. Hillsborough 
pressed him to stop at his house on his northward 
journey, which he could not well refuse. He spent 
four days there, and was treated with surprising 
civility, after the recent scene which had occurred 
between them. He took the distinguished Ameri- 



FOREIGN AGENT OF THE COLONIES. 269 

can agent out to ride over the country in his phae- 
ton, and even threw his own overcoat over his 
shoulders, lest he should take cold from exposure. 
Franklin was at a loss how to explain it. 

The Irish Parliament received him with honor, 
inviting him to a seat within the bar. In Scotland 
he renewed his old friendships, staying with Lord 
Kames and David Hume. He felt more strongly 
attached to Scotland and its people than ever. He 
employed his influence to procure from Edinburgh 
University honorary degrees for Dr. Cooper, Presi- 
dent Stiles, and Professor Winthrop, of Harvard 
College. 

He met his son-in-law, Richard Bache, on his 
return to England, never having seen him before, 
though he had been the husband of his daughter 
for four years ; and he wrote home that he was 
much pleased with him and his connections. He 
also paid a visit to Dr. Shipley, Bishop of Asaph, 
for whom he had conceived a very warm friend- 
ship, ar^d whom he used to call the "good Bishop." 
At his house, he began the composition of his 
autobiography, which he never finished. His 
country seat was in Hampshire, and his family- 
circle exceedingly attractive. Franklin continued 

23* 



270 BENJAMIN FUANKLIN. 

to correspond with tlie Bishop and one of his 
daughters as long as they both lived. 

Even then he seriously thought of going home 
again to Pennsylvania ; he was grown tired and 
disgusted with the delays of his business, and be- 
come quite willing to leave a position full of an- 
noyance and productive of no sort of public good. 
He was in his sixty-seventh year now, and wrote 
home to his son that he grew homesick ; he was 
also afraid of the infirmities of age coming sud- 
denly upon him, so as to prevent his returning home 
altogether. " I have also," said he, " some im- 
portant affairs to settle before my death, a period 
I ought now to think cannot be far distant." He 
loved his friends in England very strongly^ and 
could have contented himself to live and die with 
them, but that he also loved so well the country 
from which he had been so long an exile. 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 271 



CHAPTER XII. 

STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 

LORD Hillsborough did not treat Franklin 
very handsomely, after his return to London, 
notwithstanding his cordial manner at his 
country home; he refused to see him several 
times, and his servant once used insulting language 
before the door, while Franklin sat waiting in the 
carriage. He never called on his lordship again, 
but, as he expressed it, "we have only abused one 
another at a distance." 

A popular controversy sprung up on the rela- 
tive value of pointed and blunt conductors, about 
this time, in which Dr. Franklin necessarily took 
a part. He showed the public, by a series of ex- 
periments, that pointed were far safer than the 
blunt, because they insensibly draw the electricity 
from the clouds, while the latter cannot always 
carry off the entire amount of the fluid presenting 



272 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

itself; which, therefore leads to an explosion. In 
the height of the discussion, the king changed 
the pointed conductors on the queen's palace for 
blunt ones; but Franklin thought that settled 
nothing, either way. So far as he was himself 
concerned, he could have wished that he would 
reject them altogether, as of no use; "for," added 
he, " it is only since he thought himself and family 
safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he dared to 
use his own thunder in destroying his innocent 
subjects." To make fun of the whole matter, the 
following epigram, among other things, was pub- 
lished : — 

" While you, great George, for safety hunt, 
And sharp conductors change for blunt, 

The Empire's out of joint ; 
Franklin a wiser course pursues, 
And all your thunder fearless views. 

By keeping to the point." 

The story of the various steps that led to the 
final outbreak between the inhabitants of the 
colonies and the mother country is too long to be 
inserted in a biography of this kind ; it is enough 
merely to sketch the part which Franklin took in 
the various proceedings which finally culminated 
in revolt and revolution. 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 273 

Lord Hillsborougli was removed from the charge 
of the American Department, and Lord Dartmouth 
appointed in his place. Franklin handed Lord 
Dartmouth, at their first interview, a petition from 
the Massachusetts Assembly to the king. It was 
respecting their Governor's (Hutchinson) receiving 
his salary from the Crown instead of from the 
people, as heretofore ; a practice against all former 
custom, and ])ringing into contempt the ancient 
prerogative of the Assembly. Lord Dartmouth 
advised that it should not be presented to the king 
just then, on account of former irritation. Dr. 
Franklin showed^im why he thought the present 
was as fit as any other time for the purpose, but 
concluded at last not to press the matter, but to 
send home an account of the conversation held 
between them upon it. 

l^ext came news to the people of Massachusetts 
that the salaries of the Judges, as well as that of 
the Governor, had been made dependent on the 
Crown. The inhabitants of Boston at once held 
a town meeting, and drew up a strong protest, 
asserting that it was but another link in the chain 
which was forging for their bondage. They voted 
that copies of the bold and energetic resolutions 
which were passed by them should be sent to all 



274 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the other towns in the province, with an invitation 
to them to hold similar meetings, and express 
their sentiments with equal freedom. The Massa- 
chusetts Governor was greatly incensed at these 
proceedings of the people, and, in his letters to 
England, laid the whole blame on Franklin. He 
openly charged to the Ministry that these claims 
of the colonies "were prepared in England in a 
more full manner than ever before, with a manifest 
design and tendency to revive a flame which was 
near expiring." He also charged that it was the 
design to make a stand for these claims in Massa^ 
chusetts first, and afterwards in the other colonies. 
Franklin was called by him ''the great director in 
England" of the whole plan. 

It is sufficient, however, to offer a general denial 
to all such charges. While Hutchinson was making 
them, the friends of Franklin were complaining 
of his being lukewarm in their interest. Still, he 
held fast to all his old opinions on the relations of 
the two countries, and advised the colonies not to 
consent to part with a single right that belonged 
to them. But he probably did not suit all the 
enthusiastic ones, by reason of his wise modera- 
tion ; he always proposed to them to make haste 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 2T5 

slowly, knowing that events must work with them 
instead of against them. 

He republished the doings of the people of 
Boston, as soon as they reached him in London, 
and wrote a preface for the pamphlet. The temper 
of his own production made friends and hearers 
for the rest of the publication. Pretty soon after, 
the Massachusetts Assembly met and passed 
similar resolutions, which they forwarded to Dr. 
Franklin to present to the king. He repaired to 
Lord Dartmouth as soon as he received them, and 
told him the case would admit of no more delay ; 
his Lordship promised to deliver the petition, 
therefore, to his Majesty. 

Dr. Franklin not only wrote and published, at 
this time, the preface to the doings of the in- 
habitants of Boston, already spoken of, but like- 
wise a couple more articles, to which, however, he 
did not put his name ; they caused wide remark, 
and are known by the titles of "Rules for Re- 
ducing a Great Empire to a Small One," and "An 
Edict by the Xing of Prussia." They were full 
of dry humor, which produced more effect than 
could have been secured by any other style of 
composition. Li the summer of 1773, while absent 
in the country again, he beguiled his time with 



276 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

abridging the Book of Common Prayer, of which 
a ,hanclsome edition was printed, though it never 
came into use. 

In the latter part of the year 1772, he had pro- 
cured and sent to Massachusetts certain letters 
which were written by Governor lIutchinsDn and 
Lieutenant-Governor Oliver of that province to a 
certain member of Parliament. They were private 
letters, but they dealt with public affairs in the 
colonies. They represented that all the troubles 
on this side were fomented by a few restless and 
intriguing spirits, but that they could be put an 
end to by employing a military force that should 
overawe these leaders. Franklin sent over these 
very important letters from motives of the purest 
patriotism, believing that his countrymen should 
know w^hat was said. He said himself of the 
letters, when he forwarded them — " I am not at 
liberty to tell through what channel I received it 
(the correspondence) ; and I have engaged that it 
should not be printed, nor copies taken of the 
whole or any part of it ; but I am allowed to let 
it be seen by some men of w^orth in the province, 
for their satisfaction only." 

Franklin was greatly vilified and abused in 
England for having forwarded these letters to 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 277 

America. But tbej produced the effect that was 
intended. They were handed round' among the 
first men of Massachusetts, and Mr. John Adams, 
afterwards President, hut then a country lawyer, 
carried them in his pocket while travelling a court 
circuit. The provincial Assembly passed a vote 
of condemnation upon the letters, averring that 
they were calculated only to make mischief and 
sow the seeds of discord. They also voted to 
petition the king for the instant removal of both 
Hutchinson and Oliver. Franklin received this 
petition on its arrival ; and as Lord Dartmouth 
was absent at the time in the country, he sent it 
to him. It was soon presented to the king. 
Governor Hutchinson's letters having meantime 
been published in Boston, they found their way in 
type very soon to London. The discovery of their 
loss from the papers of the gentleman to whom 
they were originally addressed excited suspicion 
ao-ainst a certain other o-entleman who alone was 
known to have been permitted access to them, and 
a duel grew out of it. 

At this juncture, Dr. Franklin thought it neces- 
sary to come forward with his own statement. 
He publicly took upon himself the responsibility 
of having sent the obnoxious letters to America, 

24 



278 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

which he did merely to screen an innocent gentle- 
man to whom suspicion w^as wrongly directed; 
and the natural consequence was that all tongues 
and pens were instantly turned against him. A 
chancery suit was instituted against him also, but 
was finally abandoned. 

Presently he received a summons to appear 
before the Privy Council, who were considering 
the Massachusetts Assembly petition for the re- 
moval of their Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. 
The petition was read in his hearing, and then he 
was questioned as to what he had to say in its 
favor. After some conversation, it appeared that 
Hutchinson and Oliver had engaged counsel to 
defend them. To this Franklin objected, saying 
that he did not understand that counsel was to be 
employed against the petition, and that he did not 
conceive any point of law involved which required 
a lawyer's arguments; he held it, rather, to be "a 
question of civil and political jurisprudence," 
which c6uld readily be decided by the facts in 
hand. As the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor 
had counsel, he desired that the Assembly should 
have counsel likewise ; to procure w^hich, and 
allow time for preparation, the space of three 
weeks was granted. 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 279 

All sorts of stories wei^e bruited about London 
in relation to the bluff' reception Franklin had 
met with before the Council, and to the way the 
Solicitor-General, who was the counsel for Hutch- 
inson and Oliver, had treated him. Franklin 
engaged two distinguished barristers for the 
Assembly. The result of the hearing was, their 
Lordships dismissed the petition, characterizing it 
as "groundless, vexatious, and scandalous, and 
calculated only for the seditious purpose of keep- 
ing up a spirit of clamor and discontent in the 
provinces." This Report was approved by the 
king, who thereupon dismissed the petition. 
Could a more ingenious way have been devised 
for alienating and exasperating a brave and high- 
spirited people, who certainly were as much en- 
titled to the common birthright of freemen as 
their own kin who chanced to live in England ? 

On the very next day, Franklin was officially 
notified of his removal from the office of Deputy 
Postmaster-General for the colonies. He had 
looked for this, yet it made him indignant when 
the base return finally came. He kept down his 
feelings, however, resolved to remain in perfect 
control of his temper, and knowing that when he 
lost that he would part with his power to be of 



280 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

further service to liis countrymen. After this he 
kept away from the ministry, wishing to have 
nothing more to do with them. It was his inten- 
tion to return immediately home ; but, as before, 
circumstances prevented. This was in the autumn 
of 1774, and he was sixty-eight years of age. 

Hearing that the colonies were about to assemble 
in a Continental Congress, he waited in patience 
to learn what step would be taken by them next. 
The arrival of Josiah Quincy, Jr., in England, 
son of his old friend in Massachusetts, brought 
him much comfort and consolation; he got the 
latest advices by him about the feeling of his 
countrymen. He was just the man to put him in 
possession of the most secret sentiments and de- 
siofns of the American leaders. For some four 
months, he and Dr. Franklin enjoyed one another's 
society almost daily. 

The Doctor was getting ready to leave England 
as early as possible the next year, with fondest 
hopes of once more joining the delightful family 
circle from which he had been separated for ten 
years, when the sad intelligence of his wife's 
sudden death reached him. She was stricken with 
paralysis, and survived the shock but five days. 
They had been man and wife forty-four years, and 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 281 

their married life had been one of perfect harmony. 
He wrote of her, many years after her death, to a 
young lady, — "Frugality is an enriching virtue; 
a virtue I never could acquire myself; but I was 
once lucky enough to find it in a wife, who there- 
fore became a fortune to me." 

In December of that year (1774), about the 
middle of the month, he received from America 
the petition of the first Continental Congress to 
King George, accompanied with a letter from the 
President of that new body to all the colonial 
agents in London, desiring them to present the 
petition. The other agents, with the exception 
of two beside Franklin, declined acceding to the 
request, in consequence of having received no 
instructions from their several colonies. But these 
three — Franklin, Bollan, and Lee, — carried the 
petition to Lord Dartmouth, who kept it in his 
hands one day, and then engaged to deliver it. 
He afterwards informed them that it had been re- 
ceived by the king, who would at once lay it before 
Parliament for consideration. It was done, but 
no allusion whatever was made to it in the king-'s 
speech. The agents asked to be heard in support 
of it at the bar of the House, but were refused 
the privilege. It was soon after rejected by a de- 

24* 



282 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

cided vote. In the course of the debate, tlie 
colonists were spoken of with contempt, and an 
armed force was threatened to keep them in sub- 
jection. 

Franklin saw that a rupture could not long be 
avoided, if matters went on in this way. He 
visited Lord Chatham (the elder Pitt) at his coun- 
try place by invitation, where a free conversation 
was held on American affairs ; his Lordship ex- 
pressing the highest esteem and the sincerest 
sympathy for the people of the colonies, and 
hoping that they would continue firm, and remain 
united in the defence of their rights. Something 
passed between them relative to the desire of the 
colonists for independence ; but Franklin assured 
his Lordship that no such thing had for once been 
seriously thought of. Yet he knew too well that 
the treatment which the Ministry were visiting 
upon the Americans would surely force them to 
independence at last. 

Two of his influential friends, seeing what a 
critical turn matters were taking, urged him to 
come forward and make one more effort to bring 
about a reconciliation ; they assured him that the 
Ministers were not all of one mind, but that some 
of them really desired a restoration of the old 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 283 

friendsliip. They asked liim to draw up a plan 
of agreement, such as would be acceptable both to 
himself and the colonists. He consented after a 
time to do so, and, at their next meeting, handed 
them a paper containing the. heads of seventeen 
different articles, styled by him Hints, which could 
readily be thrown into the form of a compact. 
"When they read them, they raised objections to 
some of the articles, and had their doubts about 
others ; but they made copies, and promised to 
show them around in ministerial circles, where 
they enjoyed intimacies. 

Franklin had an interview on America, likewise, 
with Lord Howe, who was very anxious that he 
should effect a reconciliation if possible. He went 
to the seat of Lord Chatham, too, who spoke in 
high praise of the proceedings of Congress, say- 
ing that by reason of their calm, wise, and mode- 
rate conduct, they formed "the most honorable 
assembly of statesmen since those of the ancient 
Greeks and Romans in the most virtuous times." 
He also passed a night at the residence of Lord 
Camden, who held similar opinions on American 
affairs with those of Chatham. 

When he got back to London from this little 
visit. Lord Howe assured him that both Lord 



284. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

E"ortli and Lord Dartmouth were disposed to bring 
about an accommodation, and asked him his 
opinion of sending over a Commissioner to 
America to inquire into the grievances of the 
colonists, and to agree., on some terms of pacifica- 
tion. Franklin said he thought well of it. Lord 
Howe's sister, who was present, remarked that 
she wished he was himself going to America as 
Commissioner, instead of the General to command 
the armies there. His Lordship had perused the 
Hints which Franklin had before drawn up as a 
basis of pacification, and took a copy of them out 
of his pocket : but he said that the proposal was 
much too hard to be accepted. He therefore 
wished that Franklin would make another effort 
and ofifer. This the latter promised to do, though 
he did not believe it would be of any more avail. 
He did accordingly frame another proposition, 
based on the petition of Congress to the King, 
and sent the same to Lord Howe, who communi- 
cated it to persons of high standing in the minis- 
terial party. 

Hearing from Lord Stanhope that Chatham was 
going to ofier a motion in the House of Lords the 
next day, and that he desired him to be present, 
he determined not to miss the opportunity. The 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 



285 



very next day, January 20tli, 1775, lie received a 
message from Lord Chatham himself, asking him 
to be there. He was punctual, and met Chatham 
as expected. Lord Chatham remarked to him 
that his presence at the debate that day would be 
of more service to America than his own. Taking 
Franklin by the arm, he conducted him by the 
passage to the door opening near the throne. A 
door-keeper came up and told him that none could 
be taken in by that door except the eldest sons or 
brothers of peers ; upon which his Lordship, who 
was lame from gout, limped back with him to the 
door near the bar. A knot of gentlemen stood 
around, waiting for the peers who were to intro- 
duce them to the floor. Chatham handed him 
over to the door-keepers, sa^^ing in a voice which 
all could hear,—" This is Dr. Franklin, whom I 
would have admitted into the House." The door 
opened with no further delay. Those who saw 
Franklin with Lord Chatham, but did not know 
of there being any commerce between them, were 
rather confounded, and fell to wondering what it 
meant. They had not long to wait in order to 

find out. 

Lord Chatham rose very soon and moved that 
the troops be withdrawn from Boston ; the motion 



286 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

was debated with warmth, but finally lost. Lord 
Chatham told the House that his motion was only 
introductory to a plan of reconciliation which he 
had it in mind to bring forward. That plan he 
did show to Franklin, a week after this debate, 
and asked him to consider it at his leisure. The 
latter raised several objections to it; but as it did 
not altogether satisfy Chatham, either, it was 
thought best that it should, at any rate, be brought 
before the House of Lords, if only to open the way 
for a reconciliation on some other basis. 

It was so submitted, on the 1st of February. Dr. 
Franklin was admitted to the House as before. 
The audience was large and profoundly interested. 
Lord Chatham made one of his most noble efforts 
in behalf of it, and in favor of adopting some just 
measures for an immediate and permanent recon- 
ciliation with the colonies. His speech was so 
grand, so full of power, so overflowing with his 
matchless eloquence, it has become historical. 
But in spite of all he could do, assisted by the 
powerful talents of such men as Lord Camden, 
Lord Temple, and others, the bill was lost by a 
majority of two to one. Lord Sandwich, who 
assailed it, was especially abusive and passionate. 
He said he would not believe it proceeded from a 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 287 

peer of the realm, but lie rather believed it to be 
the work of some man from the other side of the 
Atlantic. He turned upon Dr. Franklin, who was 
leaning on the bar at the time, and, looking 
straight at him, savagely remarked that "he 
fancied he had in his eye the person who drew it 
up, — one of the bitterest and most mischievous 
enemies this country had ever known." Lord 
Chatham instantly took the whole responsibility 
of it upon himself. He was the more willing to 
own its authorship, since several of them professed 
to think so meanly of it ; for if it was so weak, 
he should be unwilling that any one else should 
be censured for it. He further stated, that it had 
been reckoned his vice heretofore, " not to be apt 
to take advice ; but he made no scruple to declare, 
that, if he were the first minister of this country, 
and had the care of settling this momentous 
business, he should not be ashamed of publicly 
calling to his assistance a person so perfectly ac- 
quainted with the whole of American affairs as 
the gentleman alluded to and so injuriously re- 
flected on ; one, he was pleased to say, whom all 
Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge 
and wisdom, and ranked with our Bayles and 



288 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Kewtons ; who was an honor, not to the English 
nation only, but to human nature !" 

His "Hints" were considered and talked about, 
on this side and that, subsequently to the rejection 
of Lord Chatham's bill by the House of Lords ; 
but nothing promised to result from it all. There 
were two or three persons, certainly, among the 
Ministry, each of whom wanted to be sent to 
America as a Commissioner to adjust the diffi- 
culties ; and several plans were tried for the sake 
of getting Franklin to subscribe to just points 
enough to warrant their appointment in that 
capacity ; but the American sage kept the rights 
and interests of his countrymen in mind rather 
than the personal ambition of certain public men 
in England. For ten long years he had held 
steadfastly to the important work on which he was 
despatched to England; and he displayed an 
amount of enthusiasm and a persistency of pur- 
pose that was truly wonderful, when it is con- 
sidered that he had been separated from his coun- 
trymen so long, and had few or no opportunities 
to understand exactly how they felt, or how com- 
mon was the disposition to resist openly. He of 
course was regularly apprised of what was trans- 
piring ill the colonies; but he needed personal 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION". 289 

contact with his countrymen to kindle his patriot- 
ism to that glow at which it would most effectively 
aid him in his purposes. Under the circumstances, 
therefore, he did what it seems no other man of 
his time could have done for America. He laid 
the claims of the colonies on a foundation so 
broad and deep that neither the prejudices of 
ministers nor the passions of the populace could 
shake them. 

His work in England had drawn to a close. 
There was nothing more for him to do. His 
friends were more his friends than ever, and they 
sent him back across the ocean with every expres- 
sion of esteem and attachment. He left word with 
two of the other agents that it was barely possible 
that he might return on business for Pennsylvania 
in the autumn, but not again for Massachusetts. 

He set sail from England on the 21st of March, 
1775, being now sixty-nine years old ; and he ar- 
rived at Philadelphia on the 5th of May. The 
battles of Lexington and Concord — ^those opening 
scenes of the seven years' drama — were fought 
while he was upon the ocean. He beguiled the 
long time of his voyage with writing an account 
of his efforts while in England to prevent a col- 
lision between the mother country and her colo- 
25 



290 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

nies, and to perpetuate their former friendship. 
And he lost no opportunity, either, to experiment 
philosophically while on the deep. He discov- 
ered that the water in the Gulf stream is warmer 
than the water on either side of it; a matter 
which he explained after .philosophical methods. 

On the very next day after he arrived home, the 
Pennsylvania Assembly chose him a delegate to 
the second Continental Congress, which was held 
in Philadelphia on the 10th of the month. The 
news of the 19th of April, at Lexington and Con- 
cord, had aroused the colonists from one end of 
the land to the other. Franklin wrote to Dr. 
Priestly at once, that "the breach between the 
.two countries is grown wider, and in danger of 
becoming irreparable." 

He w^as with those who were foremost in the 
Congress to unite now in open resistance to Eng- 
land. He believed that the time for protests and 
petitions was passed. The Congress did send over 
another petition, though there was strong opposi- 
tion to the step ; still, all were ready to keep the 
door open for reconciliation as late and long as 
possible. Franklin was now an active member of 
Congress, though in his seventieth year, besides 
serving as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 291 

appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly. The 
latter was a position which required constant labor 
and care. For eight months he served upon this 
committee with all the laborious zeal of a young 
man. He wrote — '' My time was never more fully 
employed ; in the morning at six, I am at the 
Committee of Safety, which committee holds till 
near nine ; when I am at Congress, and that sits 
till four in the afternoon." Young men, in these 
days, do not usually work any harder than that. 

He was before the general sentiment in the mat- 
ter of a separate and independent government, 
and on the 21st of July he presented a plan of a 
confederacy of the colonies to the Congress. !N'o 
action was then had upon it, but it formed the 
groundwork of operations in that direction, about 
a year later. It amounted, in fact, to a declara- 
tion of independence. Congress proceeded to 
establish a general post office system, the old one 
being destroyed by the hostile relations of the 
two countries ; and Franklin was made Postmaster- 
General, with a salary of a thousand dollars a year. 
He was empowered to make what post-routes and 
appoint such postmasters under him as he chose. 
In the raising and organization of the army, which 
was the first matter before Congress, he performed 



292 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

excellent and timely service. He was placed, too, 
on a number of important committees, on all of 
which he served industriously. He was a member 
of the Secret Committee of Congress, among 
others ; whose duty it was to obtain cannon, mus- 
kets, and ammunition, as well as to procure every 
variety of military supplies and afterward dis- 
tribute them among the troops and such armed 
vessels as were in the Continental service. It re- 
quired great caution and foresight to import these 
necessary articles of war, and steer clear of sub- 
'jecting them to the capture of the enemy's vessels 
which were cruising everywhere. 

He likewise turned his hand to a plan for emit- 
ting paper currency ; but his suggestions were not 
all adopted by the Congress, which doubtless was 
the cause of the depreciation of that currency after 
a short trial. "When Washington took command 
of the American army at Cambridge, Dr. Franklin 
was sent, with Benjamin Harrison and Thomas 
Lynch, to the camp, to devise a plan for the great- 
est possible efficiency of the army. The meeting 
between these distinguished persons took place at 
Washington's headquarters on the 18th day of 
October ; and the several colonies of New Eng- 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 293 

land were represented. The interview was pro- 
longed through several days ; and the result 
reached proved satisfactory to the committee and 
to General Washington. 

He had been elected a member of the Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly in his absence, so that when he 
returned he found himself obliged to attend daily 
upon the Assembly, the Congress, and the Com- 
mittee of Safety for Pennsylvania; but he gave 
• Congress the preference when the hours of meet- 
ing interfered. On the ?9th of November, Con- 
gress appointed a Committee of Secret Correspond- 
ence, for the purpose of keeping up regular com- 
munication with those who favored America in 
Europe, whether in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land, or on the continent. Dr. Franklin was, of 
course, assigned an important place on this com- 
mittee. He forthwith laid a train by which the 
committee could at an early day receive intelli- 
gence of what was going on in Europe. He was 
very industrious with his always serviceable pen 
in this direction. 

A plan was set on foot to induce the people of 
the Canadas to take part in the Congress ; but it 
soon fell through. The Canadians and the colo- 

25* 



294 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

nists could not be expected to become sudden 
friends, after past experiences, on no better basis 
than tbat of a common hatred of the measures of 
Great Britain. But Congress sent a commission 
to Canada, composed of Dr. Franklin, Samuel 
Chase, and Charles Carroll, to look after the army 
operations which were going forward in that quar- 
ter, and to promise the people of Canada all the 
help they wanted in setting up a government for 
themselves. 

They left on the 20fti of March, 1776, but did 
not arrive in Montreal until the last of April. The 
roads were in such condition that they could not 
travel any faster. And it was a very inopportune 
time, too, when they did arrive ; for the American 
army, under Montgomery and Arnold, had begun 
their retreat after the disaster before Quebec, and 
it was not to be supposed that the Canadians cared 
to treat with the new commissioners on such a 
subject, just then, if, indeed, they ever had been 
ready to treat. Dr. Franklin was exposed to the 
most inclement weather during the journey, being 
compelled to sleep out in the woods in some parts 
of it ; and this, for a man of seventy, might be 
thought rather hard usage. He remained two 



STEPS TO THE REVOLUTION. 295 

weeks in Montreal, and then turned his steps 
homeward again, leaving the other commissioners 
behind. He reached Albany after much trouble, 
and went thence in the private carriage of General 
Schuyler to isTew York, and finally arrived home 
in the fore-part of June. 



296 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTEPw XIII. 

MINISTER TO FRANCE. 

HE now gave his whole time to his duties 
as a member of Congress. The subject 
of independence was broached, and imme- 
diately arrested general attention. All things 
were ripe for the movement. Virginia directed 
her delegates to propose it in the Congress. Her 
request was obeyed by the famous Richard Henry 
Lee. The debate drew out the fact that the greater 
part of that body was prepared to take the final 
step towards independence. In that immortal 
debate, such men as John Dickinson, John Adams, 
Koger Sherman, Livingston, and Lee participated. 
A committee was selected to draw up a Declara- 
tion of Independence, which consisted of John 
Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Sherman, and Living- 
ston. Jefferson drafted the Declaration, but 
Franklin and Adams made a few verbal altera- 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 297 

tioiis. It was debated for three days, and on the 
•1th of Jul}^ passed by an emphatic vote. "While 
the members were sigiting their names .to the new 
Declaration, Hancock, whose bold hand seems to 
overshadow all the rest, made the remark — " We 
must be unanimous; there must be no pulling 
different ways ; we must all hang together." 
''Yes," said Franklin, ''we must, indeed, all hang 
together, or most assuredly we shall all hang sepa- 
rately." 

In the measures taken immediately after to set 
an effective government in operation, Dr. Frank- 
lin took a profound interest, and his talents were 
always at the command of the Congress. The im- 
portant letters, documents, schemes, and discus- 
sions with which his name was intimately con- 
nected, are more numerous than is popularly 
thought. 

Congress having at length decided to make an 
attempt to form foreign alliances, the colonies 
being now an independent power, the first thought 
was to make approaches to France; the general 
instinct was, that she would see that such an 
alliance against England would be for her interests 
every way. Accordingly, three commissioners 
were appointed to reside near the Court of France, 



298 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and attend to the interests of the American colo- 
nies. They were Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and 
Arthur Lee. Deane was ^n France already, en- 
gaged in procuring and sending out munitions of 
war; Lee was in England, where Franklin left 
him; and Franklin would have hut to cross the 
seas to make the trio complete. 

On the 26th of October, 1776, he took his de- 
parture from Philadelphia, to perform the crown- 
ing public services of his life. His two grandsons 
went in his company. On the following day they 
went aboard the ship Reprisal, carrying sixteen 
guns. He had placed all the money he could 
raise before leaving home — between three and four 
thousand pounds — at the disposal of Congress. 
The vessel was chased by British cruisers, but not 
overhauled. The captain took two British prizes, 
however, off the French coast. 

Dr. Franklin was set on shore at Auray, whence 
he went by land to IsTantes, a distance of seventy 
miles. Here he sought rest from the fatigue of 
his voyage and journey at a country seat near by. 
ISTobody knew beforehand of his coming. Even 
the fact of his appointment was kept secret by 
Congress. After eight days he set out for Paris, 
arriving there on the 21st of December. There 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 299 

was a great deal of talk in all circles in the French 
capital, when it was known that he had arrived in 
the country, and all parties puzzled their wits to 
make out in exactly what capacity he had come. 
Mr. Deane was already in Paris, and Mr. Lee ar- 
rived the next day. Dr. Franklin soon took lodg- 
ings at Passy, a pretty little village near Paris, 
where he continued to make his home for the 
whole time he was in France. 

His antecedent life had prepared the way for 
his cordial reception. He was long hefore known 
as a philosopher, as the author of "Poor Richard," 
and for his frank hut bold conduct in the face of 
the English ministry, while the American cause 
still claimed a hearing hefore Parliament and the 
King. The people of Paris looked on him as a 
sage, and paid him the fall reverence due such an 
exalted character. It was said of the effect pro- 
duced by his coming, that " diplomatic etiquette 
did not permit him often to hold interviews with 
the ministers, but he associated with all the 
distinguished personages who directed public 
opinion." The people of France took him as a 
personal representative of his countrymen, and 
re Guarded his serene countenance as like their own. 
He w^as described as joining "to the demeanor of 



300 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Phocion the spirit of Socrates." The old and the 
young made common court to him, and esteemed 
it almost a royal privilege to gain admission to his 
house at Passy. He did not have to put himself 
to much trouhle to negotiate ; " his virtues and his 
renown negotiated for him." 

His portraits were to be seen everywhere. His 
venerable lookins^ head was on medallions of everv 
variety, of sizes suitable to be set in snuff-box 
lids, or worn in rings. He had worn a huge wig, 
while in England, agreeably to the fashion of the 
times ; but he put it off, after he went to France, 
and wore a fur cap on his head in place of it. 
After a time, he went without this ; and in the 
best portrait which was ever painted of him, that 
by Duplessis, he shows none but his own hair, 
sparse on the top of his head, but flowing down 
freely over his shoulders. He likewise wore 
spectacles, a little later in life, whenever he went 
from home. 

The business of the Commissioners was to offer 
a plan to the French Court for a treaty of com- 
merce with the American nation, and to try and 
obtain, at the cost of the United States, eight 
line-of-battle ships ; also to borrow money, obtain 
and send forward military supplies, and fit out 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 301 

armed vessels under the new flag of the United 
States, should the French government offer no 
objection. 

But while France was willing to help the 
colonies, it was not for her interest just then to 
break with England. The Commissioners made 
a great many valuable friends, though but little 
visible headway in their business. The people of 
France were much more demonstrative than the 
ministry. The news of the reverses in America, 
too, did not have the effect to make very enthusi- 
astic friends for the colonists, at that particular 
time. Canada was cleared of our troops; the 
battle of Long Island had been fought and lost to 
us ; the British had compelled us to evacuate ISTew 
York; and General Howe was in possession of 
forts Washington and Lee, on the Hudson. Wash- 
ington was retreating with the ragged remnants 
of an army through l^ew Jersey, and the people 
of the country through which he passed were 
losing their faith in the cause. Congress, too, had 
fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore. To ask 
France to step out before the world at such a time 
and become the open friend of our falling fortunes, 
much less to become the voluntary champion of 

26 



302 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

our cause, would have been preposterous, if not a 
token of insanity. 

For all that, the Commissioners received secret 
intimations and pledges of sympathy and support 
from the Ministry, though they were not permitted 
to hold audience with the King. It was likewise 
told them that two millions of livres would come 
to them soon, through a private hand, to be used 
on behalf of the United States. The pretence 
was that the money was the free contribution of a 
few generous individuals, who entertained a deep 
sympathy with the American cause, and did not 
ask that the money should be repaid until after 
peace was declared. But the truth was, the money 
came from the royal treasury ; and so the Com- 
missioners understood it. And knowing this, and 
realizing also what was the determination among 
their countrymen to hold out until independence 
was achieved, Franklin and his 'associates felt sure 
that France would in good time come out and 
openly side with America. 

In the early autumn of 1777, General Burgoyne 
was captured, with all his army, by the northern 
army under General Gates ; and this put a brighter 
face on matters at once. The Commissioners im- 
proved the fortunate occasion to present the Court 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 303 

with an account of the new state of things, and to 
urge again their proposal for a treaty. The King 
and Ministry had been waiting for just such a 
fortunate change in American affairs, and were 
ready now to make a favorable response to the 
American agents. M. Gerard, the Secretary of 
the King's Council, waited on them, and assured 
them that, by the advice of his Council, the King 
had resolved to acknowledge the independence of 
the United States, and to enter into a treaty of 
friendship and .commerce with them. The King 
further desired to assure them that he wished to 
take no sort of advantage of the present condition 
of the United States, to exact terms which they 
would not care to comply with in more prosperous 
times, but that he wished to deal with them on 
fair and equal terms, being resolved to aid them in 
their efforts to establish an independent .nation by 
every means at his command. It was to be ex- 
pected, of course, that war w^ith England would 
g\i>w out of it; but he exacted no indemnities on 
that account, only desiring the United States to 
make a pledge not to surrender their entire inde- 
pendence in any treaty of peace which they might 
make with England, nor ever return to subjection 
again to British rule. 



304 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The new treaty was signed on the 6th day of 
February, 1788, and a messenger was sent over at 
once with the tidings to America, where it was 
received with tokens of universal joy and grati- 
tude. To the address, perseverance, skill, and 
personal popularity of Dr. Franklin the people of 
the United States felt that they owed this most 
desirable result. 

The independence of America having thus been 
proclaimed, of course the Court could no longer 
decline to give an audience to its agents and com- 
missioners. They made their public appearance 
at Versailles accordingly. In the accounts which 
were given of this notable ceremony, Franklin is 
spoken of as being accompanied by a large number 
of Americans and foreigners, led by curiosity to 
witness the scene. "His age," says one, "his 
venerable aspect, the simplicity of his dress, 
everything fortunate and remarkable in the life of 
this American, contributed to excite public atten- 
tion. The clapping of hands and other expressions 
of joy indicated that warmth of enthusiasm which 
the French are more susceptible of than any other 
people." When he crossed the court to pass to 
the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 
crowd waited for him until he came in sight, when 



MI]!^ISTER TO FRANCE. 305 

they greeted him with acclamations. Whenever 
he made his public appearance in Paris, he was 
the recipient of similar attentions. At so fashion- 
able a Court as that of France, he was made 
rather more of by reason of his republican dress. 
Madame Campan wrote of his appearance — '' His 
straight, unpowdered hair, his round hat, his 
brown cloth coat, formed a singular contrast with 
the laced and embroidered coats and perfumed 
heads of the courtiers of Yersailles." 

He had an interview with Voltaire, who had 
expressed a desire to see the illustrious American. 
Voltaire complimented Dr. Franklin by opening 
and carr^dng on the conversation in English. 

During the ten months he had been waiting to 
be recognized by the government of France as the 
agent of a new nation over the seas, a number of 
foreign officers had applied to him for letters 
recommending them to Congress, or to General 
Washington ; and the volume soon swelled to such 
a size as to be truly embarrassing. The contents 
of these letters were as various as possible ; they 
set forth the wonderful exploits of the writers, or 
enclosed certificates and recommendations of men 
of rank and military commanders. Franklin 
oould only answer to them all that he had no 
26* 



306 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

offices in the army to bestow, and no power to 
engage officers for the American army, but it was 
to no purpose. He wrote almost in despair to a 
friend, — " You can have no idea how I am harassed. 
All my friends are sought out, and teased to tease 
me. Great officers of rank in all departments, — 
ladies, great and small, — besides professed solic- 
itors, worry me from morning till night." 

But in the case of the young Marquis de La- 
fayette he proceeded differently ; he recommended 
him to Congress and his countrymen at once, and, 
in conjunction with Mr. Deane, signed a letter to 
Congress, in which it was stated that he (Lafayette) 
was " gone to America in a ship of his own, ac- 
companied by some officers of distinction, in order 
to serve in our armies. He is exceedingly beloved, 
and everybody's good wishes attend him. * * * 
He has left a beautiful young wife, and, for her 
sake particularly, we hope that his bravery and 
ardent desire to distinguish himself will be a little 
resti-ained by the General's prudence, so as not to 
permit his being hazarded much except on some 
important occasion." 

On the 14th of September, 1778, Congress ap- 
pointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to the French 
Court. He had well deserved so distinguishing a 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 307 

mark of the public confidence. It was the crown- 
ing part of his long public career. He was 
seventy-two years old; an age when most men 
think they should be snug at home, perhaps 
tenants of the chimney corner. 

As Minister, his duties became at once very 
much more weighty than as one of the three com- 
missioners ; yet he was able, notwithstanding his 
age, to perform them with regularity and efficiency. 
He had political enemies, who let pass no occasion 
to criticise the manner in which he performed his 
official duties; but his calm frame of mind and 
placid temper were not disturbed by their fault- 
finding. He discharged the offices incumbent on 
him, at any rate, with such perfect acceptance as 
to maintain for himself and his country the steady 
favor of the King and Ministry, who never re- 
fused to grant one of his requests, though they 
were made with embarrassing frequency, and 
generally pertained to money. It was one of his 
own admissions afterward, that the Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, Count de Yergennes, always ful- 
filled his promises; and that not one of the large 
number of drafts which were drawn on him by 
Congress, during the war, was allowed to go to 
protest, or to pass the time of payment. 



308 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

He received several proposals, while Minister, 
to act as mediator for a peace between the mother 
country and the colonies, on condition that 
America should concede certain commercial privi- 
leges to England which she did not to France ; 
but that sort of condition was entirely out of the 
question. He was addressed, also, on the subject 
by a secret agent under an assumed name, who 
laid before him a plan of reconciliation, and a form 
of government for Arnerica in the future. The 
writer took occasion to disparage France as much 
as he could, and to assure Franklin that America 
would find her fickle and false ; and then, as if to 
impress Franklin with the power and determina- 
tion of England, he added, that Parliament would 
never acknowledge the independence of the 
colonies, nor would the people of England ever 
submit to such an act. He declared that the 
British title to the empire was perfect, and that 
the present generation, and their successors after 
them, would insist upon that title forever. Frank- 
lin always thought this secret agent of the British 
government was really in Paris all the time, 
though he dated his letter from Brussels. And 
supposing that he was acting in the interest of the 
British Ministry, he replied in a manner which he 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 309 

thought would best meet the case. The answer is 
one of his finest specimens of combined ridicule, 
sarcasm, pungency, and strong thought. 

While serving in a public and political capacity, 
Franklin had drawn to him a large number of 
friends, composed of the most distinguished men 
not only of Paris but of France ; men known in 
scientific, literary, and political circles above the 
other men of their time. When he attended the 
meetings of the French Academy, he was always 
received by the members with most marked 
attention. 

He had his thoughts about him always for in- 
ventions, improvements, and plans of whatever 
sort, which w^ere calculated, as he believed, to 
prove of benefit to the human race. He was in 
all respects a man of philanthropy and progress. 
The famous Captain Cook being about to return 
from a voyage of discovery. Dr. Franklin sent a 
circular letter to the captains of American cruisers, 
requesting them not to capture, or even to detain, 
much less to plunder the vessel of anything which 
they might find on board, in case they should fall 
in with it. Captain Cook being an Englishman, 
and Franklin being Foreign Minister of a power 
with which England was then at war, an act of 



310 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

sucli a character could not go without its influence ; 
and accordingly, when Captain Cook's ''Voyage" 
w^as published, thfe Board of Admiralty sent a copy 
to Dr. Franklin, accompanied with a letter from 
Lord Howe which informed him that it was pre- 
sented with the King's personal approval. A 
medal, struck in honor of Captain Cook by the 
Royal Society, was also sent him. 

Paul Jones, the " father of the American ^N'avy," 
likewise presented himself before him, in connec- 
tion with a plan which had been formed for fitting 
out a squadron of vessels to make a descent on 
the coast of EnHand. There was to be a land 
force connected with the expedition, which La- 
fayette would command ; Jones w^ould be in com- 
mand of the squadron. This scheme, however, 
fell through. Jones soon after won immortal re- 
nown by fighting the frigate ^'erapis with the Bon 
Homme Richard, oft* the English coast; the aftairs 
of his cruise required adjustment afterwards, espe- 
cially his trouble with the French Captain Landais, 
who was second in command ; and this delicate 
business devolved upon Dr. Franklin. 

With all his public duties and his social de- 
mands, he never neglected the pursuit of his 
studies in philosophy. Sir Humphrey Davy says 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 311 

of some of his researches and writings — " By very 
small means he established very grand truths. * 
* * He has written equally for the uninitiated 
and for the philosopher ; and he has rendered his 
details amusing as well as perspicuous, elegant as 
well as simple. Science appears in his language 
in a dress wonderfully decorous, the best adapted 
to display her native loveliness. He has in no 
instance exhibited that false dignity by which 
philosophy is kept aloof from common applica- 
tions ; and he has sought rather to make her a 
useful inmate and servant in the common habita- 
tions of man, than to preserve her merely as an 
object of admiration in temples and palaces." 
Higher praise could not be written. It was Frank- 
lin's part to bring down the mj^steries of science 
to the comprehension of the people. 

While still Minister to France, and after he had 
been approached by a British agent, a member of 
Parliament, on the subject of reconciling the colo- 
nies with the mother country even at the expense 
of the friendship of France, the Englishman wrote 
him, just as he was leaving Paris for London, — 
" If tempestuous times should come, take care of 
your own safety ; events are uncertain, and men 
are capricious." Franklin replied to him, — ^'I 



312 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

thank you for your kind caution; but, having 
nearly finished a long life, I set but little value 
upon what remains of it. Like a draper, when 
one chaffers with him for a remnant, I am ready 
to say, 'As it is only a fag end, I will not differ 
with you about it; take it for what you please.' 
Perhaps the best use such an old fellow can be put 
to, is to make a martyr of him." 

The respect paid to Franklin by the French peo- 
ple, as well as by the Court and the men of let- 
ters, was well calculated to gratify even the vanity 
of the young nation which he represented. His 
portraits and medals were to be seen everywhere. 
Over and around his head on the medals was im- 
pressed the noble, but wholly deserved, inscription 
of Turgot, — "Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque 
tyrannis:" — which is translated, — "He snatched 
the lightning from heaven, and the sceptre from 
tyrants." 

There were stories set on foot, after a time, that 
he was too compliant to the French Court, and 
that America would fare better if she put on a 
more bold manner. Mr. John Adams, afterwards 
Minister to Great Britain, was of this opinion. 
The talk that was made over it soon led to sug- 
gestions in Congress whether another might not 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 313 

with advantage be appointed to Dr. Franklin's 
place. The French Minister in the United States, 
M. De la Luzerne, wrote to Count de Yergennes, 
Foreign Minister of France, — " Congress is filled 
with intrigues and cabals respecting the recall of 
Dr. Franklin, which the delegates from Massachu- 
setts insist on by all sorts of means." The Count 
w^rote back in reply, — " If you are questioned re- 
sjDectingour opinion of Dr. Franklin, you may say, 
without hesitation, that we esteem him as much 
for his patriotism as for the wisdom of his con- 
duct. * * * ^Yq are of opinion that his recall 
would be very inconvenient in the present state 
of things, and it would be the more disagreeable 
to us, inasmuch as he would perhaps be succeeded 
by a character unquiet, exacting, difficult, and less 
ardently attached to the cause of his country." 

Dr. Franklin was of the last service to the 
United States in procuring loans of money with 
which to carry on the war. The French govern- 
ment had loaned us already about three millions) 
of livres a year. In 1781, he increased that loan 
to four millions, besides a subsidy of six millions, 
which was a "gift outright to America." Even 
after that. Col. Laurens came over to Paris to 

solicit further aid still. Dr. Franklin joined with 
27 



314 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

him in making the request, and was to a degree 
successful. The King could do nothing more from 
the government treasury, but he promised to guar- 
antee the interest of a loan in Holland, the debt 
not to exceed ten millions of' livres. 

He was at this time seventy-five years old, and 
he formed his plans to withdraw from public life 
altogether. . In writing to the President of Con- 
gress on the subject, he said, — " I have passed my 
seventy-fifth year ; and I find that the long and 
severe fit of the gout, which I had the last winter, 
has shaken me exceedingly, and I am yet far from 
having recovered the bodily strength I before en- 
joyed. I do not know that my mental faculties 
are impaired ; perhaps I shall be the last to dis- 
cover that; but I am sensible of great diminution 
in my activity. * * * I find, also, that the 
business is too heavy for me, and too confining. 
The constant attendance at home, which is neces- 
sary for receiving and accepting your bills of ex- 
change, to answer letters, and perform other parts 
of my employment, prevents my taking the air 
and exercise which my annual journeys formerly 
used to afibrd me, and which contributed much to 
the preservation of my health." 

He had been in public life now for fifty years; 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 315 

and he confessed that he had, in that time, enjoyed 
honor enough to satisfy any reasonable ambition. 
He craved nothing but repose and rest ; and he 
hoped Congress would at once grant his request 
and send some one else to take his place. He did 
not propose, however, to return home at once, for 
the fatigues of the last sea voyage had nearly over- 
come his strength ; but he thought he would stay 
in France until after peace was declared, and per- 
haps for the remainder of his life. Whatever ex- 
perience he had already gained there, he was 
ready to turn over to his successor. 

Congress was not ready to listen to his proposal. 
That body was just makhig up a commission to 
negotiate a peace with Great Britain, — the surren- 
der of Cornwallis at Yorktown having virtually 
decided the contest, — and Dr. Franklin was named 
with four other gentlemen to join Mr. Adams. He 
therefore continued to hold his office. Having 
been already addressed in the British interest on 
the subject of a reconciliation, he was now plied 
with insidious proposals most industriously. 
They tried to influence him to agree, for one 
thing, on a ten years' truce, during which America 
was not to assist France, while England was to 
carry on war against that power. Franklin de- 



316 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

nounced such a proposal as the depth of perfidy. 
To sunder the ties that held France and the United 
States together, England was ready to make the 
last endeavor. She oflered tempting baits for that 
purpose alike to France and the United States ; 
but none of them were efficient to work the result 
desired. The entire independence of the United 
States was the great matter which both were 
resolved to secure. 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 317 



CHAPTER XIY. 

CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 

HI S domestic relations at the pleasant little 
village of Passy were of the most delight- 
ful character. The family of M. Brillon, 
in which he made his home, treated him as one 
of their own number, and with sentiments of affec- 
tionate reverence. The neighbors all delighted in 
his genial society, and he was an object of uni- 
versal love. 

The subject of animal magnetism came up be- 
fore the public mind, during the latter part of Dr. 
Franklin's mission, and he gave much attention to 
it as one of the wonders of the time ; but he was 
not led to put any faith in its reality and truth as 
a new discovery. 

The people of England having become at length 
tired of the war, they clamored for its termination ; 
and the ministry were obliged to yield. In order 

27* 



318 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to meet tlie changed aspect of affairs, Congress 
liad promptly appointed the five commissioners 
spoken of, Dr. Franklin being one, to meet at 
Paris and be ready to receive any proposals which 
the British ministry might be disposed to make. 
There were four leading points insisted on by 
Congress : — 1st, the independence of the United 
States ; 2d, a settlement of the boundaries between 
the remaining British colonies and the United 
States; 3d, a contraction of the boundaries of 
Canada to their condition before the bill which 
was passed by Parliament for the punishment of 
Massachusetts ; and, 4th, the free use of the I^ew- 
foundland Banks for fishing. 

These points were all discussed at great length, 
after the negotiating parties were met. The 
British commission labored hard to have this 
point yielded, and that point modified; but the 
American commissioners were inflexible. The 
articles being all arranged, they were signed on 
the 30th of l^ovember, 1782, at Paris, Franklin 
being seventy-six years of age at the time. This 
body of an agreement was the basis of the treaty 
which was afterwards concluded, and likewise 
signed at Paris, on the 3d day of September, 1783. 
This transaction was the token of the close of the 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 319 

Revolution, and of the birth of a new nation into 
the world. 

Dr. Franklin wrote to a friend concerning this 
event in history, that it was one he hardly ex- 
pected to live to see. "A few years of peace," 
said he, "well improved, will restore and increase 
our strength ; but our future safety will depend 
on our union and our virtue." 

The remainder of his residence in France, after 
the signing of the treaty of peace with Great 
Britain, was but a continuation of the agreeable 
life he had been leading there from the first. As 
Minister, the last public act of his career was put- 
ting his hand to a treaty w^ith Prussia, which he 
did in 1785. 

Congress was at last ready to yield to his solicit- 
ations to be relieved of his ofiicial position, and 
sent over Mr. Thomas Jefi'erson to Paris to suc- 
ceed him at the Court of Versailles. He had lived 
for eight and a half years in France, and served 
his countrymen with fidelity and singleness of 
purpose. Leaving his native land when she had 
only resolved on independence, it was his earnest 
wish to return and witness the change in her con- 
dition. If he should be so fortunate as to cross 



320 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the seas in safety, he hoped to pass the short 
remainder of his life in tranquillity and peace. 
. After taking an affectionate and impressive 
leave of his numerous friends, he embarked at 
Havre for Southampton on the last of July, 1785 ; 
and after a very brief stay in England, set sail for 
the United States. In his Journal is to be found 
the folio win 2: record of his arrival on his native 
shores : — 

"Wednesday, September 14th. — ^With the flood 
in the morning, came a light breeze, which brought 
us above Gloucester Point, in full view 'of dear 
Philadelphia ! when we again cast anchor to wait 
for the health officer, who, having made his visit, 
and finding no sickness, gave us leave to land. 
My son-in-law came in a boat to us ; we landed at 
Market street wharf, where we were received by 
a crowd of people, with huzzas, and accompanied 
with acclamations quite to my door. Found my 
faniily well. God be praised for his mercies !" 

He at once went to live with his daughter, his 
wife being some time dead. ^' I am again sur- 
rounded by my friends," wrote he to another, 
*' with a fine family of grand-children about my 
knees, and an affectionate, good daughter and 
son-iu-law to take care of me." It was his sincere 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 321 

wish, after having seen fifty years of public ser- 
vice, to be allowed the remainder of his days for 
repose and reflection ; but the needs of his coun- 
trymen hardly allowed that ; he was in perpetual 
demand, if not in positive action, then in council. 

Hardly had he become settled once more in his 
new domestic state, before he was elected to the 
Supreme Executive "^ Council of Pennsylvania. 
After that, he was made President of the province, 
— an office equal to that of Governor. Aged as 
he was, he still felt himself so completely in 
possession of his faculties as not to hesitate about 
assuming the new gifts imposed on him. He 
shrank from nothing to which he was adequate. 
To the last, his faculties were bright and elastic. 

As President, he could hold the office for three 
years ; and for the succeeding /<9wr years he would 
be ineligible. While yet in possession of this 
office, he was likewise elected a member of the 
convention for framing a Constitution of the 
United States, which assembled in Philadelphia, 
in May, 1787. At that time he was in his eighty- 
second year! Men of that age do not, now-a- 
days, go about such weighty business as framing 
the fundamental law for a country. One is sur- 
prised to find how vigorous his mind was, and 



822 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

how tenacious still of work. Long after the time 
when other men are generally through their life- 
work, and their lives also, Dr. Franklin was occu- 
pied with a task which would have challenged the 
employment of the energy of their youth. He 
made short but pithy speeches before the Conven- 
tion on the several points debated ; and, after the 
work was finished in that body, lent his further 
efforts to make the Constitution acceptable to his 
countrymen. He did not approve of every article 
of that great instrument himself; but he yielded 
to the opinions and sentiments of others, in return 
for their yielding in a degree to his own. 

His life, from this time, may be considered 
rather a private than a public one. He lived, at 
that period, in Market street ; his house was de- 
scribed as standing " up a court, at some distance 
from the street." Dr. Cutler, of Massachusetts, a 
famous botanist, who visited him at home in his 
old age, wrote in his journal of the sage, — "We 
found him in his garden, sitting upon a grass plot, 
under a very large mulberry tree, (this was in 
July, 1787) with several other gentlemen and two 
or three ladies. When Mr. Gerry introduced me, 
he rose from his chair, took me by the hand, ex- 
pressed his joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 323 

city, and begged me to seat myself close to him. 
His voice was low, but his countenance open, 
frank, and pleasing. I delivered to him my letters. 
After he had read them, he took me again by the 
hand, and, with the usual compliments, introduced 
me to the other gentlemen, who were most of them 
members of the Convention. 

" Here we entered into a free conversation, and 
spent our time most agreeably, until it was quite 
dark. The tea-table was spread under the tree ; 
and Mrs. Bache, who is the only daughter (Sarah) 
of the Doctor, and lives with him, served it out to 
the company. She had three of her children 
about her. They seemed to be exceedingly fond 
of their grandpapa" 

" After it was dark, we went into the house, and 
he invited me into his library, which is likewise 
his study. It is a very large chamber, and high- 
studded. The walls are covered with book-shelves, 
filled with books; besides, there are four large 
alcoves, extending two-thirds the length of the 
chamber, filled in the same manner. * * * He 
showed us a glass machine for exhibiting the 
circulation of the blood in the arteries and veins 
of the human body. * * * Another great 
curiosity was a rolling press, for taking the copies 



324 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of letters, or any other writing. * * . * He also 
showed us his long artificial arm and hand, for 
taking down and putting up books on high shelves, 
which are out of reach ; and his great arm-chair, 
with rockers, and a large fan placed over it, with 
which he fans himself, keeps off the flies, &c., 
while he sits reading, with only a small motion of 
the feet. * * * Over his mantel, he has a pro- 
digious number of medals, busts, and casts in wax, 
or plaster of Paris, which are the effigies of the 
most noted characters in Europe." 

His talk was chiefly on science, and especially 
on philosophy. The rest of the company talked 
politics. His visitor records that his conversation 
betrayed extensive knowledge, a bright and ready 
memory, and a perfect clearness of all the mental 
faculties, notwithstanding his age. His manners 
were easy, and calculated to make all persons con- 
tented in his presence. His vein of humor showed 
just as freshly as in earlier days. He talked and 
chatted with great freedom, keeping the conversa- 
tion always alive. 

He was drawing near, however, to the close of 
his long and useful life. There was little else for 
him to do in the world. His days were well spent. 
During the last two or three years of his life he 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 325 

was a continual sufferer from inward pain, whicli 
gave him warning, perhaps^ of his end. But the 
end was still delayed. Not until 1790, in the 
month of April, was he assailed with the disease 
which was the immediate cause of his decease. 
He had been obliged to keep his bed, for the 
greater part of a twelvemonth previously; and, in 
the intervals of his pain, he entertained himself 
with reading and his friends with conversation. 
His faculties were all this time perfectly clear, and 
his kindness and goodness of heart as much to be 
remarked as ever. He originated pleasantries 
after the old way, and was as ready as formerly 
with his anecdotes. 

A little more than two weeks before his death, 
he was overtaken with feverish symptoms, which 
attracted no special attention for two or three 
days ; but he soon afterward was afflicted with a 
cough, and his breathing became laborious. Once 
or twice he groaned, which drew from him the 
remark that he was afraid he did not bear the 
pain as he ought. He expressed his gratitude for 
the manv blessins^s he had received at the hands 
of Heaven, that he had been raised from such a 
low and small beginning to his high rank and 
consideration among men. He could not but be- 
28 



326 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

lieve that his present afflictions were sent to wean 
him from a world in which he was no longer fit 
to act the part assigned him. 

For five days in all, he lay in this state ; at the 
end of which time his pain and all difficulty of 
breathing had left him. His friends even felt 
encouraged that his life would he prolonged. But 
it was a vain hope. A trouble of the lungs made 
itself apparent now, from which his respiration 
gradually became so oppressed as to be checked 
altogether. He finally passed away in a lethargic 
state, at eleven o'clock at night, on the 17th of 
April, 1790. He had reached the advanced age 
of eighty-four years and three months. 

The intelligence of his death called forth ex- 
pressions of sorrow and sympathy alike from 
America and Europe. Congress passed resolutions 
appropriate to the event, and so did the National 
Assembly of France. Other bodies, both scientific 
and political, added their testimony to the universal 
appreciation of his life and character. 

Of his religious views many inquiries have been 
made, and assertions of his lack of faith in Divine 
Power have been in circulation. Skeptics have 
claimed him as belonging to their class, and 
sticklers for mere creeds have discarded him as of 



CLOSE OF HIS CAHEER. 327 

no worth to them. That Franklin was a pro- 
foundly religious man, his long life abundantly 
attests. Only five weeks before his death, he 
answered to the questions of Dr. Stiles, President 
of Yale College, — "I believe in one God, the 
Creator of the universe ; that he governs it by his 
Providence ; that he ought to be worshipped ; that 
the most acceptable service we can render to Him 
is doing good to His other children ; that the soul 
of man is immortal, and will be treated with 
justice in another life respecting its conduct in 
this. ^ ^ ^ As to Jesus of ^N'azareth, my 
opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think 
his system of morals and his religion, as he left 
them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like 
to see ; but I apprehend it has received various 
corrupting chang-es, and I have, with most of the 
present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to 
his divinity ; though it is a question I do not dog- 
matize upon, having never studied it." 

In none of his writings does Franklin say auglft 
against religion, but rather inculcates it as a rule 
for the life. He kept the company of such a man 
as Whitfield, who used to lodge at his house. He 
was a liberal contributor to the building of 
churches and the support of ministers. He early 



328 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

in life composed a book of prayers; and he 
abridged the Book of Common Prayer, to which 
he wrote a Preface. While in France, a skeptical 
writer, supposed to be Thomas Paine, showed him 
his work against religion in manuscript; and 
Franklin advised him to burn it. In his letter of 
advice to his daughter, written while waiting on 
board ship before sailing for England, he inculcated 
the duty of attending divine worship with regu- 
larit}^ 

• In the Convention for framing the Constitution, 
too, after that body had been in session some four 
or five weeks, it being apparently impossible to 
make any headway with business, he rose and 
proposed that the daily sessions be opened with 
prayer. He said, in support of his motion, — " In 
the beginning of the contest with Britain, when 
we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers 
in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, 
sir, were heard ; and they were graciously an- 
swered. * * * And have we. now forgotten 
that powerful Friend ? or do we imagine we no 
longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a 
long time ; and, the longer I live, the more con- 
vincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs 
in the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow cannot 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 329 

fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable 
that an empire can rise without his aid ? "We have 
been assured, sir, that, ' except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it/ I firmly 
believe this ; and I also believe, that, without his 
concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political 
building no better than the builders of Babel." 
His motion was not adopted, however, the Con- 
vention seeming to think, with the exception of 
three or four members, that prayers were " un- 
necessary." 

Dr. Franklin was ever a friend and advocate of 
the cause of education. He renewed, in the last 
days of his life, the earnestness with which he set 
about the establishment of the Academy in Phila- 
delphia, some forty years before. But he advo- 
cated the study of the English, and other modern 
tongues, before putting the learner upon the dead 
languages. To stop in this day to study Greek 
and Latin he thought as useless as to wear broad 
cuffs with buttons, after gloves began to be worn, 
and to continue the use of the cocked hat after 
umbrellas were introduced. 

In the relief of his pains, he busied himself with 
writing a variety of short papers, showing that his 

mental vigor and freshness still remained. One 

28* 



330 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of these papers was upon the license of the press, 
in assailing individuals ; another compared the 
conduct of the anti-Federalists to that of the Jews ; 
and he also gave some little time to the writing 
of his own memoirs, which he hoped, while in 
Europe, to have leisure to finish on settling down 
once more at home. He likewise drew up a plan 
for improving the condition of the free blacks* 
Indeed, it is said that the last public act of his life 
was to sign his name, as President of the Abolition 
Society of Pennsylvania, to a memorial of the 
society to Congress ; and the last paper he ever 
WTote was upon that particular topic. The paper 
in question was a sort of parody of a speech by a 
member of Congress from Georgia, in favor of 
negro slavery. Dr. Franklin represents Sidi Me- 
hemet Ibrahim as making a speech in the divan 
of Algiers, in opposition to the petition of a sect 
called Urika, who desired the abolition of piracy 
and slavery. Ibrahim brings forward exactly the 
same arguments and sentiments in his speech, in 
favor of enslaving Europeans, that had been used 
by the Georgia member of Congress. 

He was a warm personal friend of Washington 
to the last. He wrote him, in September of the 
year preceding his death, congratulating him on 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 331 

the growing strength of the new government 
Tinder his personal administration ; and he went 
on to say — " For my own personal ease, I should 
have died two years ago ; but, though those years 
have been spent in excruciating pain, I am pleased 
that I have lived them, since they have brought 
me to see our present situation. I am now finish* 
ing my eighty-fourth year, and probably with it 
my career in this life ; but in whatever state of 
existence I am placed hereafter, if I retain any 
memory of what has passed here, I shall with it 
retain the esteem, respect, and affection, with 
which I have long been, my dear friend, yours 
most sincerely." Franklin was the first person 
whom Washington called on, when he came from 
his farm in Virginia to take his seat in the Con- 
vention which framed the Constitution ; and he 
was just as attentive, on passing through Phila- 
delphia afterwards, to be invested in Isew York 
with the august Presidential office. 

The funeral services over the body of Dr. Frank- 
lin were attended by more than twenty thousand 
persons. The bells of the city were all muffled 
and tolled. The flags on the shipping w^ere hung 
at half-mast. And when the rites of sepulture 
were over, the discharge of cannon made the fact 



332 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

impressive to the hearts of all who heard their 
thunders. The sage and philosopher was buried 
by the side of his wife, in the Christ Church 
Cemetery, of Philadelphia. Both graves are 
covered wdth a slab of marble, perfectly plain, as 
he had directed in his will ; and the only inscrip- 
tion upon the same was the record of their names 
and the year of his decease. Over the place of 
his birth, in Boston, in Milk Street, has been 
erected a fine granite store, on the high brow of 
which are chiselled the two or three words that 
mark that as the spot of Franklin's nativity. The 
city of Boston has erected a fine bronze statue of 
him in City Hall Square, where one may gaze 
at the significant attitude of the philosopher to his 
heart's content and improvement. What is a little 
remarkable about the expression of the face, if it 
were a happy accident on the part of the designer, 
one side of it betrays the character of the philoso- 
pher and sage, and the other the worldly-wise 
man and the man of shrewd humor. 

In person. Dr. Franklin was of what is styled 
a strong build, and short rather than tall. He 
grew a little fleshy as he grew older. His com- 
plexion was light, and his eyes were of that in- 
evitable gray which is a puzzle to all other eyea 



CLOSE OF HIS CAREER. 333 

for the depth and variety of its expression. He 
was inclined to be silent in a mixed company, but 
in the presence of his friends he was genial and 
free. His conversation was frank and winning, 
and enriched with the results of his experience 
and observation, his humor and shrewd sagacity, 
his engaging anecdotes and sensible reflections. 
He possessed a sound judgment, remarkable sa- 
gacity, and held calm command at all times over 
his passions. What secured for him success in 
whatever he set about, he was wise enough never 
to let either his vanity or his prejudices stand in 
his way ; he was never in his own light. With 
such balance of his faculties, he was able to direct 
them upon any single object, and touch the results 
he aimed at. For humanity and genuine philan- 
thropy, no American can be placed before him; 
he was always doing good, his long life through, 
by precept, by example, and with such means as 
a kind Providence had placed at the disposal of 
his benevolence. 



THE END. 



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